Alternating usernames while connecting to mysql database My server has a max_connections value of 400 and a max_user_connections of 250. Since I am always connecting with the same user name, my effective max_connections is 250 instead of 400. To solve this, I though to connect with one username 50% of the time, and another username 50% of the time:

if(mt_rand(1,2) == 1){
  $con = mysqli_connect(DB_SERVER, DB_USER_1, DB_PASS) or die(mysql_error());
}
else{
  $con = mysqli_connect(DB_SERVER, DB_USER_2, DB_PASS) or die(mysql_error());
}


My question is, are there any downsides to doing this relating to the fact that the same person might alternate back and forth between different users? Or is this not a problem as the previous connection is "forgotten" and when the user refreshes we are starting a new connection and there is no relation to what user he/she connecting with last page refresh.

In general, is there a better way to deal with this?
I would opt to increase the number of connections instead of owning two different users/configurations in the same host with same privileges.

Unless, there is a persistent connection, php itself will close the connection explicitly even though you do not close them yourself.