Is it possible to set up the second level cache to be indexed by a natural key rather than the primary key? We have objects with an auto generated Id, but which are accessed by name primarily - thus the second level cache is bypassed.

I have a relatively small number of very slow moving objects (config type data - approx 100 objects in total) which is accessed very frequently. By using a hand cranked cache I see the performance improvements I am after, but I'd much prefer to do things by the book.

I have tried using the query cache but this had a significantly detrimental affect on the performance (it would seem to be spending a lot of time invalidating tables which I do not use for query caching).

Any assistance would be appreciated - either to understand how best to use query cache or ideally how to access the second level cache in a different manner.

Thanks.

It is not possible with the current Hibernate version, but I think the developers are working on something that is planned to appear in 3.6. See

http://opensource.atlassian.com/project ... e/HHH-2896
http://opensource.atlassian.com/project ... e/HHH-2879