# Prepare for high traffic events

This document is intended to help you manage your [Server-side Tag Manager](https://developers.google.com/tag-platform/tag-manager/server-side)
deployment when you're expecting spikes in cloud resource usage across cloud
providers. For example, this document can help you prepare for upcoming
Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales events.

## Recommendations

While your server resources may not be affected, we recommend taking the
following actions to ensure that you don't experience server downtime in the
event of cloud provider outages or resource constraints, regardless of where
you deploy Server-side Tag Manager:

- Work with your cloud provider to reserve capacity for the upcoming event.
  - For serverless solutions, such as Google Cloud Platform's App Engine or Cloud Run, increase your minimum number of instances to your expected or forecasted usage between the event trough and peak. Ideally, set this number at the peak, but at a minimum, consider using your trough.
  - For VMs, Kubernetes, or other solutions, create reservations to ensure resources during any burst in demand.
- Ensure your max instance limits are set appropriately. The limit should be high enough to handle both expected and unexpected traffic.
- Review quotas and limits. Make sure that the resources your service uses and relies on have appropriately set quotas. If you want larger quota limits, make those requests before the event.
- Upgrade your Server-side [Docker image version](https://developers.google.com/tag-platform/tag-manager/server-side/release-notes) to the latest version before the event so you can limit deployments and instance restarts during the event.

## Frequently asked questions

**How does Google protect me during Black Friday and Cyber Monday?**

By scaling for high traffic events, you ensure your site can handle increased
traffic. Without enough servers, hits will be lost and data won't be
retrievable.

Google Tag Manager freezes all code changes and infrastructure restarts during
the duration of Black Friday and Cyber Monday events.

Google Cloud pauses infrastructure updates, automated upgrades,
deployments, and lifecycle terminations during the duration of Black Friday and
Cyber Monday events. Instances that are running should continue to run
to their full lifetimes unless they crash or are interrupted by you.

**What events should I prepare for?**

- For Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we recommend preparing for one week before Thanksgiving and two days after Cyber Monday.
- For end of year events, we recommend preparing for one week before Christmas and one day after New Years.