PHP 5.3 shipped with a new driver for MySQL, mysqlnd or MySQL Native Driver. While one of it's biggest features is that it gives us a mysql driver that is part of PHP so it doesn't suffer from licensing issues that the previous driver did. However, in the redesign, the architecture was changed.

He mentions the mysqlnd_uh that's a part of this new MySQL driver and an interesting article from Ulf Wendel about its use in transparent load balancing and sharding. The article includes code that randomly picks a MySQL server for the script to use.

The article is a bit difficult to read at time but trust me, stick with them because the stuff in there is the stuff you want in your head when you are working on your next application.

• Load Balancing and MySQL Master and Slaves - If you are currently using MySql master/slave replication for load balancing and wish to transport to cakePHP, it really couldn't be easier.
• Request Information Component - Need more insight into how a controller structures a CakePHP request? This little component will log important information and variables for each request to your application's debug log.
• Uuid Behavior - I have a requirement to use UUID's as primary keys. I was initially using MySQL triggers to call uuid() on insert but in the end decided a behavior makes more sense. This behavior adds a UUID to the field specified in your models.
• Improved Upload Behaviour with Thumbnails and Name Correction - This is an improved version of Chris Partridge's upload behaviour (http://bin.cakephp.org/saved/17539). The behaviour is able to generate thumbnails if used for images (JPEG/PNG only).

CakePHP users can check out these and more great articles, tutorials and more on The Bakery.