diff --git a/playbooks/manual/staging-sync/lookaside-include.yml b/playbooks/manual/staging-sync/lookaside-include.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0d34bb3838
--- /dev/null
+++ b/playbooks/manual/staging-sync/lookaside-include.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+# This playbook syncs a *subset* of the production lookaside cache to stg.
+# bochecha asked for this in 2015 -- implemented by ralph.
+#
+# Adjust in 2016 to copy specific sets of packages.  See lookaside.yml for that.
+
+
+- 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}}/{{packages}}
+           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=/
+
+- name: finish cleaning up after ourselves
+  hosts: batcave01.phx2.fedoraproject.org: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
+    tags: cleanup
+  - file: dest={{tarball}} state=absent
+    tags: cleanup
diff --git a/playbooks/manual/staging-sync/lookaside.yml b/playbooks/manual/staging-sync/lookaside.yml
index 2005b9b991..fdcaa907f8 100644
--- a/playbooks/manual/staging-sync/lookaside.yml
+++ b/playbooks/manual/staging-sync/lookaside.yml
@@ -1,61 +1,7 @@
-# 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.
+# Run staging sync for lookaside on a couple different package sets.
 
-
-- 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}}/ad* {{target}}/bash
-           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=/
-
-- name: finish cleaning up after ourselves
-  hosts: batcave01.phx2.fedoraproject.org: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
-    tags: cleanup
-  - file: dest={{tarball}} state=absent
-    tags: cleanup
+- include: /srv/web/infra/ansible/playbooks/manual/staging-sync/lookaside-include.yml packages="{audit,basesystem,bash,coreutils,cronie,curl,dhcp,dnf,e2fsprogs,filesystem}"
+- include: /srv/web/infra/ansible/playbooks/manual/staging-sync/lookaside-include.yml packages="{glibc,grubby,hostname,httpd,initscripts,iproute,iputils,kbd,less,man-db}"
+- include: /srv/web/infra/ansible/playbooks/manual/staging-sync/lookaside-include.yml packages="{mariadb,ncurses,openssh,parted,passwd,php,plymouth,policycoreutils,procps-ng}"
+- include: /srv/web/infra/ansible/playbooks/manual/staging-sync/lookaside-include.yml packages="{rootfiles,rpm,selinux-policy,setup,shadow-utils,sudo,systemd,uboot-tools}"
+- include: /srv/web/infra/ansible/playbooks/manual/staging-sync/lookaside-include.yml packages="{util-linux,vim}"