diff --git a/salt/common/tools/sbin/so-common b/salt/common/tools/sbin/so-common
index 68288791d..6ae35324f 100755
--- a/salt/common/tools/sbin/so-common
+++ b/salt/common/tools/sbin/so-common
@@ -677,7 +677,8 @@ has_uppercase() {
 }
 
 update_elastic_agent() {
-	get_elastic_agent_vars
+	local path="${1:-/opt/so/saltstack/default}"
+	get_elastic_agent_vars "$path"
 	echo "Checking if Elastic Agent update is necessary..."
 	download_and_verify "$ELASTIC_AGENT_URL" "$ELASTIC_AGENT_MD5_URL" "$ELASTIC_AGENT_FILE" "$ELASTIC_AGENT_MD5" "$ELASTIC_AGENT_EXPANSION_DIR"
 }
diff --git a/salt/manager/tools/sbin/soup b/salt/manager/tools/sbin/soup
index 6725814c6..6b6b4d64a 100755
--- a/salt/manager/tools/sbin/soup
+++ b/salt/manager/tools/sbin/soup
@@ -837,7 +837,8 @@ determine_elastic_agent_upgrade() {
   if [[ $is_airgap -eq 0 ]]; then
     update_elastic_agent_airgap
   else
-    update_elastic_agent
+    # the new elasticsearch defaults.yaml file is not yet placed in /opt/so/saltstack/default/salt/elasticsearch yet
+    update_elastic_agent "$UPDATE_DIR"
   fi
 }