Modified version of tpol's script. Uses mysql2 gem.

connect.rb

#!/usr/bin/ruby

# gem install mysql2 -v 0.3.12b6

#require 'mysql'
require 'mysql2'

def usage
  puts "USAGE: connect.rb <connections> [<runtime>]"
  exit
end

usage unless ARGV.length >= 1
connections, runtime = ARGV
runtime = runtime.nil? ? 100 : runtime.to_i

conn_arry = []

(1..connections.to_i).each do |n|
  begin
    #conn_arry[n] = Mysql.real_connect( '127.0.0.1','deploy', 'PASSWORD', 'DBNAME')
    conn_arry[n] = Mysql2::Client.new( :host => '127.0.0.1', :username => 'deploy', :password => 'PASSWORD', :database => 'DBNAME')
    puts "Progress: #{n} connections" if n % 2000 == 0
  rescue Exception => e
    puts e.message
    puts "At #{n} connections"
    break
  end
end
puts "Reached #{conn_arry.length}."
sleep (runtime)