Zend_Application_Resource_Db will initialize a Zend_Db adapter based on the options passed to it. By default, it also sets the adapter as the default adapter for use with Zend_Db_Table. The following configuration keys are recognized: adapter: Zend_Db adapter type. params: associative array of configuration parameters to use when retrieving the adapter instance. isDefaultTableAdapter: whether or not to establish this adapter as the default table adapter. Below is an example INI configuration that can be used to initialize the DB resource. If you choose not to make the adapter instantiated with this resource the default table adapter, how do you retrieve the adapter instance? As with any resource plugin, you can fetch the DB resource plugin from your bootstrap: getPluginResource('db'); ]]> Once you have the resource object, you can fetch the DB adapter using the getDbAdapter() method: getDbAdapter(); ]]>