I would really like to know more about the update, export and possible values for hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto
I need to know when to use updates and when not to? And what is the alternative?
Here is the documentation for that property: Hibernate ORM 5.5.2.Final User Guide
There is no “alternative”. You should IMO never use hbm2ddl for production environments. Always use a schema management tool like Liquibase or Flyway.