diff --git a/salt/common/tools/sbin/so-common b/salt/common/tools/sbin/so-common
index 365852e63..ba2cb5ae7 100755
--- a/salt/common/tools/sbin/so-common
+++ b/salt/common/tools/sbin/so-common
@@ -220,12 +220,22 @@ compare_es_versions() {
 }
 
 copy_new_files() {
+  # Define files to exclude from deletion (relative to their respective base directories)
+  local EXCLUDE_FILES=(
+    "salt/hypervisor/soc_hypervisor.yaml"
+  )
+  
+  # Build rsync exclude arguments
+  local EXCLUDE_ARGS=()
+  for file in "${EXCLUDE_FILES[@]}"; do
+    EXCLUDE_ARGS+=(--exclude="$file")
+  done
+  
   # Copy new files over to the salt dir
   cd $UPDATE_DIR
-  rsync -a salt $DEFAULT_SALT_DIR/ --delete
-  rsync -a pillar $DEFAULT_SALT_DIR/ --delete
+  rsync -a salt $DEFAULT_SALT_DIR/ --delete "${EXCLUDE_ARGS[@]}"
+  rsync -a pillar $DEFAULT_SALT_DIR/ --delete "${EXCLUDE_ARGS[@]}"
   chown -R socore:socore $DEFAULT_SALT_DIR/
-  chmod 755 $DEFAULT_SALT_DIR/pillar/firewall/addfirewall.sh
   cd /tmp
 }
 
diff --git a/salt/manager/tools/sbin/soup b/salt/manager/tools/sbin/soup
index 952645c61..8fd3f0b64 100755
--- a/salt/manager/tools/sbin/soup
+++ b/salt/manager/tools/sbin/soup
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@ whiptail_title='Security Onion UPdater'
 NOTIFYCUSTOMELASTICCONFIG=false
 TOPFILE=/opt/so/saltstack/default/salt/top.sls
 BACKUPTOPFILE=/opt/so/saltstack/default/salt/top.sls.backup
+SALTUPGRADED=false
+SALT_CLOUD_INSTALLED=false
 # used to display messages to the user at the end of soup
 declare -a FINAL_MESSAGE_QUEUE=()
 
@@ -1260,24 +1262,39 @@ upgrade_check_salt() {
 }
 
 upgrade_salt() {
-  SALTUPGRADED=True
   echo "Performing upgrade of Salt from $INSTALLEDSALTVERSION to $NEWSALTVERSION."
   echo ""
   # If rhel family
   if [[ $is_rpm ]]; then
+    # Check if salt-cloud is installed
+    if rpm -q salt-cloud &>/dev/null; then
+      SALT_CLOUD_INSTALLED=true
+    fi
+    
     echo "Removing yum versionlock for Salt."
     echo ""
     yum versionlock delete "salt"
     yum versionlock delete "salt-minion"
     yum versionlock delete "salt-master"
+    # Remove salt-cloud versionlock if installed
+    if [[ $SALT_CLOUD_INSTALLED == true ]]; then
+      yum versionlock delete "salt-cloud"
+    fi
     echo "Updating Salt packages."
     echo ""
     set +e
     # if oracle run with -r to ignore repos set by bootstrap
     if [[ $OS == 'oracle' ]]; then
-      run_check_net_err \
-      "sh $UPDATE_DIR/salt/salt/scripts/bootstrap-salt.sh -X -r -F -M stable \"$NEWSALTVERSION\"" \
-      "Could not update salt, please check $SOUP_LOG for details."
+      # Add -L flag only if salt-cloud is already installed
+      if [[ $SALT_CLOUD_INSTALLED == true ]]; then
+        run_check_net_err \
+        "sh $UPDATE_DIR/salt/salt/scripts/bootstrap-salt.sh -X -r -L -F -M stable \"$NEWSALTVERSION\"" \
+        "Could not update salt, please check $SOUP_LOG for details."
+      else
+        run_check_net_err \
+        "sh $UPDATE_DIR/salt/salt/scripts/bootstrap-salt.sh -X -r -F -M stable \"$NEWSALTVERSION\"" \
+        "Could not update salt, please check $SOUP_LOG for details."
+      fi
     # if another rhel family variant we want to run without -r to allow the bootstrap script to manage repos
     else
       run_check_net_err \
@@ -1290,6 +1307,10 @@ upgrade_salt() {
     yum versionlock add "salt-0:$NEWSALTVERSION-0.*"
     yum versionlock add "salt-minion-0:$NEWSALTVERSION-0.*"
     yum versionlock add "salt-master-0:$NEWSALTVERSION-0.*"
+    # Add salt-cloud versionlock if installed
+    if [[ $SALT_CLOUD_INSTALLED == true ]]; then
+      yum versionlock add "salt-cloud-0:$NEWSALTVERSION-0.*"
+    fi
   # Else do Ubuntu things
   elif [[ $is_deb ]]; then
     echo "Removing apt hold for Salt."
@@ -1322,6 +1343,7 @@ upgrade_salt() {
     echo ""
     exit 1
   else
+    SALTUPGRADED=true
     echo "Salt upgrade success."
     echo ""
   fi
@@ -1565,6 +1587,11 @@ main() {
     # ensure the mine is updated and populated before highstates run, following the salt-master restart
     update_salt_mine
 
+    if [[ $SALT_CLOUD_INSTALLED == true && $SALTUPGRADED == true ]]; then
+      echo "Updating salt-cloud config to use the new Salt version"
+      salt-call state.apply salt.cloud.config concurrent=True
+    fi
+
     enable_highstate
 
     echo ""
diff --git a/salt/salt/cloud/cloud.profiles.d/socloud.conf.jinja b/salt/salt/cloud/cloud.profiles.d/socloud.conf.jinja
index 025e23d89..23fd15983 100644
--- a/salt/salt/cloud/cloud.profiles.d/socloud.conf.jinja
+++ b/salt/salt/cloud/cloud.profiles.d/socloud.conf.jinja
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ sool9_{{host}}:
   private_key: /etc/ssh/auth_keys/soqemussh/id_ecdsa
   sudo: True
   deploy_command: sh /tmp/.saltcloud-*/deploy.sh
-  script_args: -r -F -x python3 stable 3006.9
+  script_args: -r -F -x python3 stable {{ SALTVERSION }}
   minion:
     master: {{ grains.host }}
     master_port: 4506
diff --git a/salt/salt/cloud/config.sls b/salt/salt/cloud/config.sls
index dfbfda56b..8b5e15fe1 100644
--- a/salt/salt/cloud/config.sls
+++ b/salt/salt/cloud/config.sls
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 {% if '.'.join(sls.split('.')[:2]) in allowed_states %}
 {%   if 'vrt' in salt['pillar.get']('features', []) %}
 {%     set HYPERVISORS = salt['pillar.get']('hypervisor:nodes', {} ) %}
+{%     from 'salt/map.jinja' import SALTVERSION %}
 
 {%     if HYPERVISORS %}
 cloud_providers:
@@ -20,7 +21,7 @@ cloud_providers:
     - name: /etc/salt/cloud.providers.d/libvirt.conf
     - source: salt://salt/cloud/cloud.providers.d/libvirt.conf.jinja
     - defaults:
-        HYPERVISORS: {{HYPERVISORS}}
+        HYPERVISORS: {{ HYPERVISORS }}
     - template: jinja
     - makedirs: True
 
@@ -29,9 +30,10 @@ cloud_profiles:
     - name: /etc/salt/cloud.profiles.d/socloud.conf
     - source: salt://salt/cloud/cloud.profiles.d/socloud.conf.jinja
     - defaults:
-        HYPERVISORS: {{HYPERVISORS}}
+        HYPERVISORS: {{ HYPERVISORS }}
         MANAGERHOSTNAME: {{ grains.host }}
         MANAGERIP: {{ pillar.host.mainip }}
+        SALTVERSION: {{ SALTVERSION }}
     - template: jinja
     - makedirs: True
 {%     endif %}
diff --git a/salt/salt/master.defaults.yaml b/salt/salt/master.defaults.yaml
index 8e1a618fd..9dfe8587f 100644
--- a/salt/salt/master.defaults.yaml
+++ b/salt/salt/master.defaults.yaml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 # version cannot be used elsewhere in this pillar as soup is grepping for it to determine if Salt needs to be patched
 salt:
   master:
-    version: '3006.9'
+    version: '3006.16'
diff --git a/salt/salt/minion.defaults.yaml b/salt/salt/minion.defaults.yaml
index 7ec839950..e897313d2 100644
--- a/salt/salt/minion.defaults.yaml
+++ b/salt/salt/minion.defaults.yaml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # version cannot be used elsewhere in this pillar as soup is grepping for it to determine if Salt needs to be patched
 salt:
   minion:
-    version: '3006.9'
+    version: '3006.16'
     check_threshold: 3600 # in seconds, threshold used for so-salt-minion-check. any value less than 600 seconds may cause a lot of salt-minion restarts since the job to touch the file occurs every 5-8 minutes by default