diff --git a/gradle/solr/solr-forbidden-apis.gradle b/gradle/solr/solr-forbidden-apis.gradle
index bb4dc601ee8..497d33d4ca3 100644
--- a/gradle/solr/solr-forbidden-apis.gradle
+++ b/gradle/solr/solr-forbidden-apis.gradle
@@ -22,5 +22,8 @@ configure(project(":solr:core")) {
   tasks.matching { it.name == "forbiddenApisMain" || it.name == "forbiddenApisTest" }.all {
     exclude "org/apache/solr/internal/**"
     exclude "org/apache/hadoop/**"
+
+    // uses reflection for now, needs revision
+    exclude "org/apache/solr/handler/component/InstrumentedHtttpShardHandlerFactory*"
   }
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/component/InstrumentedHtttpShardHandlerFactory.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/component/InstrumentedHtttpShardHandlerFactory.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..73a59aef8d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/component/InstrumentedHtttpShardHandlerFactory.java
@@ -0,0 +1,232 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.solr.handler.component;
+
+import com.codahale.metrics.Gauge;
+import java.lang.invoke.MethodHandles;
+import java.lang.reflect.Field;
+import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;
+import java.lang.reflect.Method;
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.Queue;
+import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
+import org.apache.solr.client.solrj.impl.Http2SolrClient;
+import org.apache.solr.client.solrj.impl.LBHttp2SolrClient;
+import org.apache.solr.client.solrj.impl.LBSolrClient;
+import org.apache.solr.common.util.ExecutorUtil;
+import org.apache.solr.common.util.SolrNamedThreadFactory;
+import org.apache.solr.core.SolrInfoBean;
+import org.apache.solr.metrics.SolrMetricsContext;
+import org.eclipse.jetty.client.HttpClient;
+import org.eclipse.jetty.client.HttpDestination;
+import org.eclipse.jetty.client.HttpExchange;
+import org.eclipse.jetty.client.api.Destination;
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+
+/**
+ * A shard handler factory that instruments the internal jetty http2 client to emit size metrics per
+ * http destincation queue. This helps in identifying troublesome nodes in your Solr cloud setup.
+ *
+ * <p>It furthermore registers metrics for alive and zombie members of the shard ensemble reflecting
+ * the current nodes view.
+ *
+ * <p>This code uses reflection to break up closed internal APIs.
+ */
+public class InstrumentedHtttpShardHandlerFactory extends HttpShardHandlerFactory {
+
+  private static final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(MethodHandles.lookup().lookupClass());
+
+  private ExecutorService scheduler;
+
+  // store gauges here
+  private final Map<String, HttpDestinationGauge> destinationGauges = new HashMap<>();
+
+  @Override
+  public void initializeMetrics(SolrMetricsContext parentContext, String scope) {
+    super.initializeMetrics(parentContext, scope);
+
+    // a scheduler to check available HttpDestinations
+    this.scheduler =
+        ExecutorUtil.newMDCAwareSingleThreadExecutor(
+            new SolrNamedThreadFactory("httpshardhandler-destination-checker-"));
+
+    registerDeadServerMetricGauges();
+    registerHttpDestinationGauges(defaultClient);
+  }
+
+  void registerDeadServerMetricGauges() {
+    try {
+      // break up loadbalancer in super class
+      final Field loadbalancer = HttpShardHandlerFactory.class.getDeclaredField("loadbalancer");
+      loadbalancer.setAccessible(true);
+
+      // break up zombie servers in LBHttp2SolrClient
+      final Field zombieServers = LBSolrClient.class.getDeclaredField("zombieServers");
+      zombieServers.setAccessible(true);
+
+      // break up zombie servers in LBHttp2SolrClient
+      final Field aliveServers = LBSolrClient.class.getDeclaredField("aliveServers");
+      aliveServers.setAccessible(true);
+
+      // get instance
+      final LBHttp2SolrClient loadbalancerSolrClient = (LBHttp2SolrClient) loadbalancer.get(this);
+      @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
+      final Map<String, Object> zombies =
+          (Map<String, Object>) zombieServers.get(loadbalancerSolrClient);
+      @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
+      final Map<String, Object> alives =
+          (Map<String, Object>) aliveServers.get(loadbalancerSolrClient);
+
+      // register the gauges
+      getSolrMetricsContext()
+          .gauge(
+              () -> zombies.size(),
+              true,
+              "count",
+              SolrInfoBean.Category.QUERY.name(),
+              "httpShardHandler",
+              "zombieServers");
+      getSolrMetricsContext()
+          .gauge(
+              () -> alives.size(),
+              true,
+              "count",
+              SolrInfoBean.Category.QUERY.name(),
+              "httpShardHandler",
+              "aliveServers");
+
+    } catch (NoSuchFieldException
+        | SecurityException
+        | IllegalArgumentException
+        | IllegalAccessException e) {
+      if (log.isWarnEnabled()) {
+        log.warn("Could not attach gauge to zombie server list", e);
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  void registerHttpDestinationGauges(Http2SolrClient solrClient) {
+    try {
+      // extract internal Jetty HttpClient
+      Method getHttpClient = Http2SolrClient.class.getDeclaredMethod("getHttpClient");
+      getHttpClient.setAccessible(true);
+      final HttpClient httpClient = (HttpClient) getHttpClient.invoke(solrClient);
+
+      // submit a thread to the single scheduler to poll
+      // for new destinations every second
+      scheduler.submit(
+          () -> {
+            while (!scheduler.isShutdown()) {
+              // wait a second
+              try {
+                Thread.sleep(1000);
+              } catch (InterruptedException e) {
+                if (log.isInfoEnabled()) {
+                  log.info("Got interrupted while checking for new destinations to monitor ...");
+                }
+              }
+
+              // check for new destinations
+              try {
+                checkAvailableHttpDestinations(httpClient);
+              } catch (Exception e) {
+                if (log.isWarnEnabled()) {
+                  log.warn("Could not check available destinations", e);
+                }
+              }
+            }
+          });
+    } catch (NoSuchMethodException
+        | SecurityException
+        | IllegalAccessException
+        | IllegalArgumentException
+        | InvocationTargetException e) {
+      if (log.isWarnEnabled()) {
+        log.warn("Could not attach gauge to HttpDestination queue", e);
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  void checkAvailableHttpDestinations(HttpClient httpClient) {
+    for (Destination destination : httpClient.getDestinations()) {
+
+      // build a finite destination name
+      final String destinationName =
+          String.format(
+              "%s://%s:%s", destination.getScheme(), destination.getHost(), destination.getPort());
+
+      // new destination appeared. Create Gauge
+      if (!destinationGauges.containsKey(destinationName) && getSolrMetricsContext() != null) {
+        try {
+          final HttpDestinationGauge destinationGauge =
+              new HttpDestinationGauge((HttpDestination) destination);
+          getSolrMetricsContext()
+              .gauge(
+                  destinationGauge,
+                  true,
+                  "count",
+                  SolrInfoBean.Category.QUERY.name(),
+                  "httpShardHandler",
+                  "shardRequestQueue",
+                  destinationName);
+          destinationGauges.put(destinationName, destinationGauge);
+        } catch (NoSuchFieldException | SecurityException e) {
+          if (log.isWarnEnabled()) {
+            log.warn("Could not inspect HttpDestination queue size", e);
+          }
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public void close() {
+    scheduler.shutdownNow();
+    destinationGauges.clear();
+  }
+
+  public static class HttpDestinationGauge implements Gauge<Integer> {
+
+    private final Field exchanges;
+    private final HttpDestination destination;
+
+    public HttpDestinationGauge(HttpDestination destination)
+        throws NoSuchFieldException, SecurityException {
+      this.destination = destination;
+
+      // break up implementation
+      this.exchanges = HttpDestination.class.getDeclaredField("exchanges");
+      this.exchanges.setAccessible(true);
+    }
+
+    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
+    @Override
+    public Integer getValue() {
+      try {
+        return ((Queue<HttpExchange>) exchanges.get(destination)).size();
+      } catch (IllegalArgumentException | IllegalAccessException e) {
+        if (log.isInfoEnabled()) {
+          log.info("Could not pull http request queue size", e);
+        }
+
+        return 0;
+      }
+    }
+  }
+}