diff --git a/swift/common/direct_client.py b/swift/common/direct_client.py
index a68159f207..f6234fa385 100644
--- a/swift/common/direct_client.py
+++ b/swift/common/direct_client.py
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ import six
 import six.moves.cPickle as pickle
 from six.moves.http_client import HTTPException
 
-from swift.common.bufferedhttp import http_connect
+from swift.common.bufferedhttp import http_connect, http_connect_raw
 from swift.common.exceptions import ClientException
 from swift.common.request_helpers import USE_REPLICATION_NETWORK_HEADER, \
     get_ip_port
@@ -56,6 +56,20 @@ class DirectClientException(ClientException):
             http_reason=resp.reason, http_headers=headers)
 
 
+class DirectClientReconException(ClientException):
+
+    def __init__(self, method, node, path, resp):
+        if not isinstance(path, six.text_type):
+            path = path.decode("utf-8")
+        msg = 'server %s:%s direct %s %r gave status %s' % (
+            node['ip'], node['port'], method, path, resp.status)
+        headers = HeaderKeyDict(resp.getheaders())
+        super(DirectClientReconException, self).__init__(
+            msg, http_host=node['ip'], http_port=node['port'],
+            http_status=resp.status, http_reason=resp.reason,
+            http_headers=headers)
+
+
 def _make_path(*components):
     return u'/' + u'/'.join(
         x.decode('utf-8') if isinstance(x, six.binary_type) else x
@@ -640,3 +654,31 @@ def retry(func, *args, **kwargs):
                               http_device=args[0]['device'])
     else:
         raise ClientException('Raise too many retries')
+
+
+def direct_get_recon(node, recon_command, conn_timeout=5, response_timeout=15,
+                     headers=None):
+    """
+    Get recon json directly from the storage server.
+
+    :param node: node dictionary from the ring
+    :param recon_command: recon string (post /recon/)
+    :param conn_timeout: timeout in seconds for establishing the connection
+    :param response_timeout: timeout in seconds for getting the response
+    :param headers: dict to be passed into HTTPConnection headers
+    :returns: deserialized json response
+    :raises DirectClientReconException: HTTP GET request failed
+    """
+    if headers is None:
+        headers = {}
+
+    ip, port = get_ip_port(node, headers)
+    path = '/recon/%s' % recon_command
+    with Timeout(conn_timeout):
+        conn = http_connect_raw(ip, port, 'GET', path,
+                                headers=gen_headers(headers))
+    with Timeout(response_timeout):
+        resp = conn.getresponse()
+    if not is_success(resp.status):
+        raise DirectClientReconException('GET', node, path, resp)
+    return json.loads(resp.read())
diff --git a/swift/common/middleware/recon.py b/swift/common/middleware/recon.py
index 423b94ed09..13e00332f4 100644
--- a/swift/common/middleware/recon.py
+++ b/swift/common/middleware/recon.py
@@ -135,6 +135,12 @@ class ReconMiddleware(object):
         return self._from_recon_cache(['drive_audit_errors'],
                                       self.drive_recon_cache)
 
+    def get_sharding_info(self):
+        """get sharding info"""
+        return self._from_recon_cache(["sharding_stats",
+                                       "sharding_last"],
+                                      self.container_recon_cache)
+
     def get_replication_info(self, recon_type):
         """get replication info"""
         replication_list = ['replication_time',
@@ -372,6 +378,8 @@ class ReconMiddleware(object):
             content = self.get_driveaudit_error()
         elif rcheck == "time":
             content = self.get_time()
+        elif rcheck == "sharding":
+            content = self.get_sharding_info()
         else:
             content = "Invalid path: %s" % req.path
             return Response(request=req, status="404 Not Found",
diff --git a/test/unit/common/middleware/test_recon.py b/test/unit/common/middleware/test_recon.py
index f36cc5a1cc..af3d13daf0 100644
--- a/test/unit/common/middleware/test_recon.py
+++ b/test/unit/common/middleware/test_recon.py
@@ -157,6 +157,9 @@ class FakeRecon(object):
         self.fake_replication_rtype = recon_type
         return {'replicationtest': "1"}
 
+    def fake_sharding(self):
+        return {"sharding_stats": "1"}
+
     def fake_updater(self, recon_type):
         self.fake_updater_rtype = recon_type
         return {'updatertest': "1"}
@@ -1107,6 +1110,84 @@ class TestReconSuccess(TestCase):
             rv = self.app.get_time()
             self.assertEqual(rv, now)
 
+    def test_get_sharding_info(self):
+        from_cache_response = {
+            "sharding_stats": {
+                "attempted": 0,
+                "deferred": 0,
+                "diff": 0,
+                "diff_capped": 0,
+                "empty": 0,
+                "failure": 0,
+                "hashmatch": 0,
+                "no_change": 0,
+                "remote_merge": 0,
+                "remove": 0,
+                "rsync": 0,
+                "start": 1614136398.5729735,
+                "success": 0,
+                "ts_repl": 0,
+                "sharding": {
+                    "audit_root": {
+                        "attempted": 0,
+                        "failure": 0,
+                        "success": 0,
+                    },
+                    "audit_shard": {
+                        "attempted": 0,
+                        "failure": 0,
+                        "success": 0,
+                    },
+                    "cleaved": {
+                        "attempted": 0,
+                        "failure": 0,
+                        "max_time": 0,
+                        "min_time": 0,
+                        "success": 0,
+                    },
+                    "created": {
+                        "attempted": 0,
+                        "failure": 0,
+                        "success": 0,
+                    },
+                    "misplaced": {
+                        "attempted": 0,
+                        "failure": 0,
+                        "found": 0,
+                        "placed": 0,
+                        "success": 0,
+                        "unplaced": 0,
+                    },
+                    "scanned": {
+                        "attempted": 0,
+                        "failure": 0,
+                        "found": 0,
+                        "max_time": 0,
+                        "min_time": 0,
+                        "success": 0,
+                    },
+                    "sharding_candidates": {
+                        "found": 0,
+                        "top": [],
+                    },
+                    "visited": {
+                        "attempted": 0,
+                        "completed": 0,
+                        "failure": 0,
+                        "skipped": 6,
+                        "success": 0,
+                    }
+                },
+            },
+            "sharding_last": 1614136398.6680582}
+        self.fakecache.fakeout_calls = []
+        self.fakecache.fakeout = from_cache_response
+        rv = self.app.get_sharding_info()
+        self.assertEqual(self.fakecache.fakeout_calls,
+                         [((['sharding_stats', 'sharding_last'],
+                             '/var/cache/swift/container.recon'), {})])
+        self.assertEqual(rv, from_cache_response)
+
 
 class TestReconMiddleware(unittest.TestCase):
 
@@ -1139,6 +1220,7 @@ class TestReconMiddleware(unittest.TestCase):
         self.app.get_socket_info = self.frecon.fake_sockstat
         self.app.get_driveaudit_error = self.frecon.fake_driveaudit
         self.app.get_time = self.frecon.fake_time
+        self.app.get_sharding_info = self.frecon.fake_sharding
 
     def test_recon_get_mem(self):
         get_mem_resp = [b'{"memtest": "1"}']
@@ -1406,6 +1488,14 @@ class TestReconMiddleware(unittest.TestCase):
             resp = self.real_app_get_swift_conf_md5()
         self.assertIsNone(resp['/etc/swift/swift.conf'])
 
+    def test_recon_get_sharding(self):
+        get_sharding_resp = [
+            b'{"sharding_stats": "1"}']
+        req = Request.blank('/recon/sharding',
+                            environ={'REQUEST_METHOD': 'GET'})
+        resp = self.app(req.environ, start_response)
+        self.assertEqual(resp, get_sharding_resp)
+
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main()
diff --git a/test/unit/common/test_direct_client.py b/test/unit/common/test_direct_client.py
index 8705595980..bc4ee62b26 100644
--- a/test/unit/common/test_direct_client.py
+++ b/test/unit/common/test_direct_client.py
@@ -86,11 +86,11 @@ class FakeConn(object):
 
 @contextmanager
 def mocked_http_conn(*args, **kwargs):
+    mocked = kwargs.pop('mocked', 'swift.common.bufferedhttp.http_connect_raw')
     fake_conn = FakeConn(*args, **kwargs)
     mock_http_conn = lambda *args, **kwargs: \
         fake_conn._update_raw_call_args(*args, **kwargs)
-    with mock.patch('swift.common.bufferedhttp.http_connect_raw',
-                    new=mock_http_conn):
+    with mock.patch(mocked, new=mock_http_conn):
         yield fake_conn
 
 
@@ -979,6 +979,36 @@ class TestDirectClient(unittest.TestCase):
         for line in error_lines:
             self.assertIn('Kaboom!', line)
 
+    def test_direct_get_recon(self):
+        data = {
+            "/etc/swift/account.ring.gz": "de7316d2809205fa13ebfc747566260c",
+            "/etc/swift/container.ring.gz": "8e63c916fec81825cc40940eefe1d058",
+            "/etc/swift/object.ring.gz": "a77f51c14bbf7075bb7be0c27fd00dc4",
+            "/etc/swift/object-1.ring.gz": "f0222326f80ee5cb34b7546b18727923",
+            "/etc/swift/object-2.ring.gz": "2228dc8a7ff1cf2eb89b116653ac6191"}
+        body = json.dumps(data)
+        with mocked_http_conn(
+                200, {}, body,
+                mocked='swift.common.direct_client.http_connect_raw') as conn:
+            resp = direct_client.direct_get_recon(self.node, "ringmd5")
+        self.assertEqual(conn.method, 'GET')
+        self.assertEqual(conn.path, '/recon/ringmd5')
+        self.assertEqual(conn.host, self.node['ip'])
+        self.assertEqual(conn.port, self.node['port'])
+        self.assertEqual(data, resp)
+
+        # Now check failure
+        with mocked_http_conn(
+                500,
+                mocked='swift.common.direct_client.http_connect_raw') as conn:
+            with self.assertRaises(ClientException) as raised:
+                resp = direct_client.direct_get_recon(self.node, "ringmd5")
+        self.assertEqual(conn.host, self.node['ip'])
+        self.assertEqual(conn.port, self.node['port'])
+        self.assertEqual(conn.method, 'GET')
+        self.assertEqual(conn.path, '/recon/ringmd5')
+        self.assertEqual(raised.exception.http_status, 500)
+
 
 class TestUTF8DirectClient(TestDirectClient):