diff --git a/manifests/db/mysql.pp b/manifests/db/mysql.pp
index f883283..b042b3d 100644
--- a/manifests/db/mysql.pp
+++ b/manifests/db/mysql.pp
@@ -45,8 +45,8 @@ class nova::db::mysql(
$dbname = 'nova',
$user = 'nova',
$host = '127.0.0.1',
- $charset = 'latin1',
- $collate = 'latin1_swedish_ci',
+ $charset = 'utf8',
+ $collate = 'utf8_unicode_ci',
$allowed_hosts = undef,
$mysql_module = '0.9',
$cluster_id = undef