diff --git a/salt/common/tools/sbin/soup b/salt/common/tools/sbin/soup
index 12613bcff..9515c0828 100755
--- a/salt/common/tools/sbin/soup
+++ b/salt/common/tools/sbin/soup
@@ -266,8 +266,17 @@ check_log_size_limit() {
     
     local current_limit
     echo "getting log_size_limit pillar in check_log_size_limit"
-    current_limit=$(lookup_pillar "log_size_limit" "elasticsearch")
+
+    # since it is possible for the salt-master service to be stopped when this is run, we need to check the pillar values locally
+    # we need to combine default local and default pillars before doing this so we can define --pillar-root in salt-call
+    local epoch_date=$(date +%s%N)
+    mkdir -p /opt/so/saltstack/soup_tmp_${epoch_date}/
+    cp -r /opt/so/saltstack/default/pillar/ /opt/so/saltstack/soup_tmp_${epoch_date}/
+    # use \cp here to overwrite any pillar files from default with those in local for the tmp directory
+    \cp -r /opt/so/saltstack/local/pillar/ /opt/so/saltstack/soup_tmp_${epoch_date}/
+    current_limit=$(salt-call pillar.get elasticsearch:log_size_limit --local --pillar-root=/opt/so/saltstack/soup_tmp_${epoch_date}/pillar)
     echo "found log_size_limit to be $current_limit"
+    rm -rf /opt/so/saltstack/soup_tmp_${epoch_date}/
     
     local percent
     case $node_type in