diff --git a/playbooks/manual/staging-sync/lookaside.yml b/playbooks/manual/staging-sync/lookaside.yml
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+++ b/playbooks/manual/staging-sync/lookaside.yml
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+# This playbook syncs a *subset* of the production lookaside cache to stg.
+# bochecha asked for this in 2015 -- implemented by ralph.
+#
+# Presently, we only do the packages that start with 'a', because there's just
+# too much data otherwise.
+
+
+- name: tar up a subset of the prod lookaside cache
+  hosts: pkgs
+  user: root
+  vars_files:
+   - /srv/web/infra/ansible/vars/global.yml
+   - "/srv/private/ansible/vars.yml"
+   - /srv/web/infra/ansible/vars/{{ ansible_distribution }}.yml
+
+  vars:
+    tarball: /var/tmp/prod-lookaside-subset.tar.xz
+    intermediary: /var/tmp/prod-lookaside
+    target: /srv/cache/lookaside/pkgs
+
+  tasks:
+  - shell: tar -cJvf {{tarball}} {{target}}/a*
+           creates={{tarball}}
+  - fetch: src={{tarball}}
+           dest={{intermediary}}
+           fail_on_missing=yes
+
+- name: copy and expand that subset to staging lookaside
+  hosts: pkgs-stg
+  user: root
+  vars_files:
+   - /srv/web/infra/ansible/vars/global.yml
+   - "/srv/private/ansible/vars.yml"
+   - /srv/web/infra/ansible/vars/{{ ansible_distribution }}.yml
+
+  vars:
+    tarball: /var/tmp/prod-lookaside-subset.tar.xz
+    intermediary: /var/tmp/prod-lookaside
+    target: /srv/cache/lookaside/pkgs
+
+  tasks:
+  - unarchive: src={{intermediary}}/pkgs02.phx2.fedoraproject.org/{{tarball}}
+               dest={{target}}
+  #- copy: src={{intermediary}}/pkgs02.phx2.fedoraproject.org/{{tarball}}
+  #        dest={{tarball}}
+  #- command: tar -xJvf {{tarball}}
+  #           chdir={{target}}
+  #- name: clean up the tarball we copied there
+  #  file: dest={{tarball}} state=absent
+
+
+- name: finish cleaning up after ourselves
+  hosts: lockbox;pkgs;pkgs-stg
+  user: root
+  vars_files:
+   - /srv/web/infra/ansible/vars/global.yml
+   - "/srv/private/ansible/vars.yml"
+   - /srv/web/infra/ansible/vars/{{ ansible_distribution }}.yml
+
+  vars:
+    tarball: /var/tmp/prod-lookaside-subset.tar.xz
+    intermediary: /var/tmp/prod-lookaside
+    target: /srv/cache/lookaside/pkgs
+
+  tasks:
+  - file: dest={{intermediary}} state=absent
+  - file: dest={{tarball}} state=absent