diff --git a/doc/development/README.md b/doc/development/README.md
index 16df0b40c47..6bc8e1888db 100644
--- a/doc/development/README.md
+++ b/doc/development/README.md
@@ -7,3 +7,4 @@
 - [Sidekiq debugging](sidekiq_debugging.md)
 - [UI guide](ui_guide.md) for building GitLab with existing css styles and elements
 - [Migration Style Guide](migration_style_guide.md) for creating safe migrations
+- [How to dump production data to staging](dump_db.md)
diff --git a/doc/development/db_dump.md b/doc/development/db_dump.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..4ad3bd534e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/development/db_dump.md
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+# Importing a database dump into a staging enviroment
+
+Sometimes it is useful to import the database from a production environment
+into a staging environment for testing. The procedure below assumes you have
+SSH+sudo access to both the production environment and the staging VM.
+
+On the staging VM, add the following line to `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` to speed up
+large database imports.
+
+```
+# On STAGING
+echo "postgresql['checkpoint_segments'] = 64" | sudo tee -a /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb
+sudo touch /etc/gitlab/skip-auto-migrations
+sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
+```
+
+Next, we let the production environment stream a compressed SQL dump to our
+local machine via SSH, and redirect this stream to a psql client on the staging
+VM.
+
+```
+# On LOCAL MACHINE
+ssh -C gitlab.example.com sudo -u gitlab-psql /opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/pg_dump -Cc gitlabhq_production |\
+  ssh -C staging-vm sudo -u gitlab-psql /opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/psql -d template1
+```
+
+## Recreating directory structure
+
+If you need to re-create some directory structure on the staging server you can
+use this procedure.
+
+First, on the production server, create a list of directories you want to
+re-create.
+
+```
+# On PRODUCTION
+(umask 077; sudo find /var/opt/gitlab/git-data/repositories -maxdepth 1 -type d -print0 > directories.txt)
+```
+
+Copy `directories.txt` to the staging server and create the directories there.
+
+```
+# On STAGING
+sudo -u git xargs -0 mkdir -p < directories.txt
+```