how does slave database work?

[Protoman]

I noticed in the vB 3.5 config file there is an option for a slave database. How does this work exactly? Is it for load balancing or for mirroring?

[Marco van Herwaarden]

It is for load balancing. You set MySql to replicate to a second server, then vB will use the second server/database for most read operations, while putting all updates direct to the master server.

[Protoman]

interesting..

can the regular mySQL version do this or do you need mySQL cluster edition to make it happen?

[Marco van Herwaarden]

I never set it up myself, so i am not sure which
MySQL version support it.