The best way to check the availability and performance of any application or database is to actually login and run something, in this case a transaction. For HANA, the simplest way is to execute a SQL against the database. Automating this would serve both purposes of ensuring the database is accessible as well as being able to provide response time for particular transactions, on a periodic basis. Furthermore, it can be used to automate regular jobs such as health checks or housekeeping, without creating intricate database jobs.
