diff --git a/test_runner/performance/test_storage_controller_scale.py b/test_runner/performance/test_storage_controller_scale.py
index 04785f7184..281c9271e9 100644
--- a/test_runner/performance/test_storage_controller_scale.py
+++ b/test_runner/performance/test_storage_controller_scale.py
@@ -217,11 +217,7 @@ def test_storage_controller_many_tenants(
                 # A reconciler operation: migrate a shard.
                 shard_number = rng.randint(0, shard_count - 1)
                 tenant_shard_id = TenantShardId(tenant_id, shard_number, shard_count)
-
-                # Migrate it to its secondary location
-                desc = env.storage_controller.tenant_describe(tenant_id)
-                dest_ps_id = desc["shards"][shard_number]["node_secondary"][0]
-
+                dest_ps_id = rng.choice([ps.id for ps in env.pageservers])
                 f = executor.submit(
                     env.storage_controller.tenant_shard_migrate, tenant_shard_id, dest_ps_id
                 )
@@ -235,11 +231,7 @@ def test_storage_controller_many_tenants(
         for f in futs:
             f.result()
 
-    # Some of the operations above (notably migrations) might leave the controller in a state where it has
-    # some work to do, for example optimizing shard placement after we do a random migration. Wait for the system
-    # to reach a quiescent state before doing following checks.
-    env.storage_controller.reconcile_until_idle()
-
+    # Consistency check is safe here: all the previous operations waited for reconcile before completing
     env.storage_controller.consistency_check()
     check_memory()