Scaling Applications with SAP HANA Express and Spring Boot

September 16, 2025

#1

This guide shows how to scale Spring Boot applications using SAP HANA Express as the backend database for performance and availability.

1. Use Connection Pooling

Spring Boot supports HikariCP by default. Configure pooling in application.properties:

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:sap://localhost:39015/?databaseName=HXE
spring.datasource.username=SYSTEM
spring.datasource.password=YourPassword
spring.datasource.driver-class-name=com.sap.db.jdbc.Driver

spring.datasource.hikari.maximum-pool-size=20
spring.datasource.hikari.minimum-idle=5
spring.datasource.hikari.idle-timeout=30000
spring.datasource.hikari.max-lifetime=1800000

This ensures efficient use of database connections under load.

2. Use Caching for Heavy Queries

Enable Spring Cache:

import org.springframework.cache.annotation.Cacheable;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Service;

@Service
public class ReportService {
    private final ReportRepository repo;

    public ReportService(ReportRepository repo) {
        this.repo = repo;
    }

    @Cacheable("salesReport")
    public Object getSalesReport() {
        return repo.findSalesSummary();
    }
}

@Cacheable reduces repeated database calls.

3. Scale with Multiple Instances

Run multiple Spring Boot instances:

java -jar app.jar --server.port=8081
java -jar app.jar --server.port=8082

Use a load balancer (NGINX, HAProxy, or Kubernetes Service) to distribute requests.

4. Configure HANA for High Performance

• Use column store tables for analytical queries.
• Create indexes on frequently filtered columns.
• Use partitioning for large tables.

Example:

CREATE COLUMN TABLE SALES (
    ID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
    PRODUCT NVARCHAR(100),
    REGION NVARCHAR(50),
    AMOUNT DECIMAL(10,2)
) PARTITION BY HASH (REGION);

5. Monitoring and Metrics

Enable Spring Actuator for metrics:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-actuator</artifactId>
</dependency>

Check health and metrics:

GET /actuator/health
GET /actuator/metrics