diff --git a/nomad/rpc_test.go b/nomad/rpc_test.go
index 4ac6ffb4c..1a6e02160 100644
--- a/nomad/rpc_test.go
+++ b/nomad/rpc_test.go
@@ -15,10 +15,10 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"path"
 	"path/filepath"
+	"regexp"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
 
-	"github.com/hashicorp/go-hclog"
 	"github.com/hashicorp/go-msgpack/codec"
 	"github.com/hashicorp/go-sockaddr"
 	msgpackrpc "github.com/hashicorp/net-rpc-msgpackrpc"
@@ -1145,19 +1145,14 @@ func TestRPC_TLS_Enforcement_Raft(t *testing.T) {
 func TestRPC_TLS_Enforcement_RPC(t *testing.T) {
 	ci.Parallel(t)
 
-	defer func() {
-		//TODO Avoid panics from logging during shutdown
-		time.Sleep(1 * time.Second)
-	}()
-
 	tlsHelper := newTLSTestHelper(t)
-	defer tlsHelper.cleanup()
+	t.Cleanup(tlsHelper.cleanup)
 
-	standardRPCs := map[string]interface{}{
+	standardRPCs := map[string]any{
 		"Status.Ping": &structs.GenericRequest{},
 	}
 
-	localServersOnlyRPCs := map[string]interface{}{
+	localServersOnlyRPCs := map[string]any{
 		"Eval.Update": &structs.EvalUpdateRequest{
 			WriteRequest: structs.WriteRequest{Region: "global"},
 		},
@@ -1187,7 +1182,7 @@ func TestRPC_TLS_Enforcement_RPC(t *testing.T) {
 		},
 	}
 
-	localClientsOnlyRPCs := map[string]interface{}{
+	localClientsOnlyRPCs := map[string]any{
 		"Alloc.GetAllocs": &structs.AllocsGetRequest{
 			QueryOptions: structs.QueryOptions{Region: "global"},
 		},
@@ -1210,7 +1205,7 @@ func TestRPC_TLS_Enforcement_RPC(t *testing.T) {
 	cases := []struct {
 		name   string
 		cn     string
-		rpcs   map[string]interface{}
+		rpcs   map[string]any
 		canRPC bool
 	}{
 		// Local server.
@@ -1325,11 +1320,20 @@ func TestRPC_TLS_Enforcement_RPC(t *testing.T) {
 
 						if tc.canRPC {
 							if err != nil {
-								require.NotContains(t, err, "certificate")
+								// note: lots of these RPCs will return
+								// validation errors after connection b/c we're
+								// focusing on testing TLS here
+								must.StrNotContains(t, err.Error(), "certificate")
 							}
 						} else {
-							require.Error(t, err)
-							require.Contains(t, err.Error(), "certificate")
+							// We expect "bad certificate" for these failures,
+							// but locally the error can return before the error
+							// message bytes have been received, in which case
+							// we immediately write on the pipe that was just
+							// closed by the client
+							must.Error(t, err)
+							must.RegexMatch(t,
+								regexp.MustCompile("(certificate|broken pipe)"), err.Error())
 						}
 					})
 				}
@@ -1337,7 +1341,7 @@ func TestRPC_TLS_Enforcement_RPC(t *testing.T) {
 				t.Run(fmt.Sprintf("nomad RPC: rpc=%s verify_hostname=false", method), func(t *testing.T) {
 					err := tlsHelper.nomadRPC(t, tlsHelper.nonVerifyServer, cfg, method, arg)
 					if err != nil {
-						require.NotContains(t, err, "certificate")
+						must.StrNotContains(t, "certificate", err.Error())
 					}
 				})
 			}
@@ -1387,7 +1391,7 @@ func newTLSTestHelper(t *testing.T) tlsTestHelper {
 
 	makeServer := func(bootstrapExpect int, verifyServerHostname bool) (*Server, func()) {
 		return TestServer(t, func(c *Config) {
-			c.Logger.SetLevel(hclog.Off)
+			c.NumSchedulers = 0
 			c.BootstrapExpect = bootstrapExpect
 			c.TLSConfig = &config.TLSConfig{
 				EnableRPC:            true,
@@ -1441,32 +1445,34 @@ func (h tlsTestHelper) newCert(t *testing.T, name string) string {
 }
 
 func (h tlsTestHelper) connect(t *testing.T, s *Server, c *config.TLSConfig) net.Conn {
+	t.Helper()
 	conn, err := net.DialTimeout("tcp", s.config.RPCAddr.String(), time.Second)
-	require.NoError(t, err)
+	must.NoError(t, err)
 
 	// configure TLS
 	_, err = conn.Write([]byte{byte(pool.RpcTLS)})
-	require.NoError(t, err)
+	must.NoError(t, err)
 
 	// Client TLS verification isn't necessary for
 	// our assertions
 	tlsConf, err := tlsutil.NewTLSConfiguration(c, true, true)
-	require.NoError(t, err)
+	must.NoError(t, err)
 	outTLSConf, err := tlsConf.OutgoingTLSConfig()
-	require.NoError(t, err)
+	must.NoError(t, err)
 	outTLSConf.InsecureSkipVerify = true
 
 	tlsConn := tls.Client(conn, outTLSConf)
-	require.NoError(t, tlsConn.Handshake())
+	must.NoError(t, tlsConn.Handshake())
 
 	return tlsConn
 }
 
 func (h tlsTestHelper) nomadRPC(t *testing.T, s *Server, c *config.TLSConfig, method string, arg interface{}) error {
+	t.Helper()
 	conn := h.connect(t, s, c)
 	defer conn.Close()
 	_, err := conn.Write([]byte{byte(pool.RpcNomad)})
-	require.NoError(t, err)
+	must.NoError(t, err)
 
 	codec := pool.NewClientCodec(conn)