diff --git a/qa/suites/rgw/verify/tasks/reshard.yaml b/qa/suites/rgw/verify/tasks/reshard.yaml
index 6e7605b13ec..db65af36a22 100644
--- a/qa/suites/rgw/verify/tasks/reshard.yaml
+++ b/qa/suites/rgw/verify/tasks/reshard.yaml
@@ -2,4 +2,4 @@ tasks:
 - workunit:
     clients:
       client.0:
-        - rgw/test_rgw_reshard.py
\ No newline at end of file
+        - rgw/run-reshard.sh
diff --git a/qa/workunits/rgw/run-reshard.sh b/qa/workunits/rgw/run-reshard.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..42c97ce9d02
--- /dev/null
+++ b/qa/workunits/rgw/run-reshard.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -ex
+
+#assume working ceph environment (radosgw-admin in path) and rgw on localhost:80
+
+mydir=`dirname $0`
+
+python3 -m venv $mydir
+source $mydir/bin/activate
+pip install pip --upgrade
+pip install boto3
+
+## run test
+$mydir/bin/python3 $mydir/test_rgw_reshard.py
+
+deactivate
+echo OK.
+
diff --git a/qa/workunits/rgw/test_rgw_reshard.py b/qa/workunits/rgw/test_rgw_reshard.py
index 75da55ef96e..c69b305e982 100755
--- a/qa/workunits/rgw/test_rgw_reshard.py
+++ b/qa/workunits/rgw/test_rgw_reshard.py
@@ -48,21 +48,6 @@ def exec_cmd(cmd):
         return False
 
 
-def install_reqs():
-    out = exec_cmd('cat /etc/*release')
-    result = {}
-    for row in out.decode('utf8').split('\n'):
-        if '=' in row:
-            k, v = row.split('=')
-            result[k.strip()] = v.strip('""')
-    if result['NAME'] == 'Ubuntu':
-        exec_cmd('sudo apt install -y python3-pip')
-    else:
-        exec_cmd('sudo yum install -y python3-pip')
-    exec_cmd('sudo pip3 install boto3')
-
-
-install_reqs()
 import boto3