diff --git a/salt/manager/tools/sbin/so-boot-mine-update b/salt/manager/tools/sbin/so-boot-mine-update
index 292b24ecc..38dd63191 100755
--- a/salt/manager/tools/sbin/so-boot-mine-update
+++ b/salt/manager/tools/sbin/so-boot-mine-update
@@ -48,10 +48,11 @@ echo "so-boot-mine-update: ${up} minions up (settled after ${elapsed}s); running
 # and later highstates self-heal.
 /usr/bin/salt-call saltutil.refresh_pillar >/dev/null 2>&1
 sleep 2
-status=$(/usr/bin/salt-call --out=json pillar.get node_data 2>/dev/null \
-  | python3 -c 'import sys,json; d=json.load(sys.stdin).get("local"); print("rendered" if d else "empty")' 2>/dev/null)
-status=${status:-empty}
-if [ "$status" = "rendered" ]; then
+rendered=$(/usr/bin/salt-call --out=json pillar.get node_data 2>/dev/null \
+  | python3 -c 'import sys,json; d=json.load(sys.stdin).get("local"); print(json.dumps(d, indent=2, sort_keys=True))' 2>/dev/null)
+echo "so-boot-mine-update: node_data rendered as:"
+echo "${rendered:-null}"
+if [ -n "$rendered" ] && [ "$rendered" != "null" ] && [ "$rendered" != "false" ]; then
   echo "so-boot-mine-update: node_data renders; highstate will apply manager config"
 else
   echo "so-boot-mine-update: WARNING node_data still empty after mine.update; highstate may hit the bootstrap recovery branch"