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SAP MaxDB

maintenance

by SAP SE · since 1977 · also known as MaxDB, SAP DB, Adabas D, MySQL MaxDB, liveCache

SAP's older relational database (ex-Adabas D/SAP DB), still under content servers and liveCache.

relationaldatabase engineproprietarylegacy
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maintenance. SAP has ended major and minor development after 7.9 (last listed patch 7.9.10.12, Feb 2024) and is phasing MaxDB out in favour of SAP HANA.

Overview

MaxDB is a relational database whose roots go back to a 1977 TU Berlin research project, later sold as Adabas D by Software AG, acquired by SAP in 1997 as SAP DB, briefly open-sourced under GPL and co-marketed with MySQL AB as MaxDB, then taken back fully by SAP in 2007. It is a low-administration engine certified for SAP NetWeaver systems and is the technology underneath SAP liveCache and many SAP Content Server installations. SAP has stopped feature development after 7.9 (latest patch 7.9.10.12, 2024) and is phasing it out in favour of HANA. Only consider it inside existing SAP landscapes.

Transactional apps (OLTP)Content & catalogs

Strengths & trade-offs

Strengths

  • +Low-administration engine that runs SAP content servers with little care
  • +Certified for SAP NetWeaver, liveCache and Content Server scenarios
  • +Free community licence for non-SAP use

Trade-offs

  • −No feature development after 7.9; SAP is phasing it out
  • −Tiny community outside SAP Basis teams
  • −No modern features such as JSON, vectors or columnar storage

Great for

  • +SAP Content Server document storage
  • +SAP liveCache for SCM/APO planning
  • +Keeping older SAP NetWeaver systems running until migration

Think twice for

  • −Any new application
  • −Non-SAP workloads
  • −Analytics

Capabilities

Native or official first-party support · 7 of 25 tracked

✓Transactions
✓Joins
✓Secondary indexes
✓Triggers
✓Stored procedures
✓Durable persistence
✓Role-based access
–Full-text search
–Vector search
–Geospatial
–JSON
–Change data capture
–Materialized views
–TTL / expiry
–Pub/Sub
–Columnar storage
–In-memory
–Compression
–Encryption at rest
–Time travel
–Branching
–Online schema changes
–Streaming ingest
–Offline sync
–Runs in WebAssembly

Scale & consistency

Comfortable data size
Medium · ≤ 10 TB
Horizontal scaling
None
Multi-region
Read replicas
Transactions
Full ACID
Consistency
Strong
Schema
Strict
Architecture
Client server, Primary replica
Query languages
SQL

Single-server engine with hot-standby options; scaling is vertical.

Deployment

Self-hosted Vendor-managed cloud Serverless Embedded Edge Kubernetes operator

Ecosystem

apis & protocolsODBC, JDBC, SQLDBC
client languagesC, C++, Java, Python, ABAP

Alternatives to SAP MaxDB

Compare all→
SAP HANARelational39.7

SAP's in-memory columnar HTAP database, the mandatory engine under S/4HANA.

sap-maxdb vs sap-hana →
SAP ASE (Sybase)Relational28.3

The original Sybase T-SQL engine, still running trading and SAP systems but firmly in SAP's sunset lane.

sap-maxdb vs sap-ase →
PostgreSQLRelational93.2

The extensible, standards-first open-source relational database.

sap-maxdb vs postgresql →
Microsoft SQL ServerRelational71.0

Microsoft's flagship RDBMS: T-SQL, columnstore, Always On, and now native vectors and JSON.

sap-maxdb vs sql-server →
CUBRIDRelational11.8

Korean open-source RDBMS with built-in HA and Oracle-like SQL, common in Korean public sector.

sap-maxdb vs cubrid →
DBMakerRelational0.0

SYSCOM's ODBC-native SQL database from Taiwan, known for letting COBOL programs use SQL tables.

sap-maxdb vs dbmaker →

SAP MaxDB FAQ

What is SAP MaxDB?

SAP MaxDB is a relational database by SAP SE, first released in 1977. MaxDB is a relational database whose roots go back to a 1977 TU Berlin research project, later sold as Adabas D by Software AG, acquired by SAP in 1997 as SAP DB, briefly open-sourced under GPL and co-marketed with MySQL AB as MaxDB, then taken back fully by SAP in 2007. It is a low-administration engine certified for SAP NetWeaver systems and is the technology underneath SAP liveCache and many SAP Content Server installations. SAP has stopped feature development after 7.9 (latest patch 7.9.10.12, 2024) and is phasing it out in favour of HANA. Only consider it inside existing SAP landscapes.

Is SAP MaxDB open source?

No. SAP MaxDB is proprietary, closed-source software.

Does SAP MaxDB support ACID transactions?

Yes. SAP MaxDB supports full ACID transactions, with strong consistency.

Does SAP MaxDB scale horizontally?

SAP MaxDB does not scale horizontally; it runs on a single node, so you scale it up rather than out. It is comfortable at medium scale (≤ 10 TB). It supports cross-region read replicas.

How can I run SAP MaxDB?

You can self-host it.

What is SAP MaxDB best for?

SAP MaxDB is a strong fit for SAP Content Server document storage, SAP liveCache for SCM/APO planning and keeping older SAP NetWeaver systems running until migration. Think twice for any new application.

What are the best alternatives to SAP MaxDB?

Common alternatives to SAP MaxDB include SAP HANA, SAP ASE (Sybase), PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server and CUBRID. The right choice depends on your workload, scale and hosting; WhichDB's smart match ranks them against your requirements.

Is SAP MaxDB still maintained?

SAP MaxDB is in maintenance mode. SAP has ended major and minor development after 7.9 (last listed patch 7.9.10.12, Feb 2024) and is phasing MaxDB out in favour of SAP HANA.

How popular is SAP MaxDB?

SAP MaxDB ranks #303 of 844 databases on the WhichDB Score (10.1/100), and #97 among relational databases. The score combines public adoption signals such as package downloads, GitHub activity, job posts and developer discussion.