diff --git a/manifests/db/mysql.pp b/manifests/db/mysql.pp
index f883283b4..1b72dc6e8 100644
--- a/manifests/db/mysql.pp
+++ b/manifests/db/mysql.pp
@@ -21,11 +21,11 @@
 #
 # [*charset*]
 #   (optional) The charset to use for the nova database
-#   Defaults to 'latin1'
+#   Defaults to 'utf8'
 #
 # [*collate*]
 #   (optional) The collate to use for the nova database
-#   Defaults to 'latin1_swedish_ci'
+#   Defaults to 'utf8_unicode_ci'
 #
 # [*allowed_hosts*]
 #   (optional) Additional hosts that are allowed to access this DB
@@ -45,8 +45,8 @@
   $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
diff --git a/spec/classes/nova_db_mysql_spec.rb b/spec/classes/nova_db_mysql_spec.rb
index 3eb6ff2c2..06494c289 100644
--- a/spec/classes/nova_db_mysql_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/classes/nova_db_mysql_spec.rb
@@ -23,14 +23,14 @@
       it { should contain_mysql__db('nova').with(
         :user        => 'nova',
         :password    => 'qwerty',
-        :charset     => 'latin1',
+        :charset     => 'utf8',
         :require     => "Class[Mysql::Config]"
       )}
     end
 
     context 'when overriding charset' do
       let :params do
-        { :charset => 'utf8' }.merge(required_params)
+        { :charset => 'latin1' }.merge(required_params)
       end
 
       it { should contain_mysql__db('nova').with_charset(params[:charset]) }
@@ -50,14 +50,14 @@
       it { should contain_mysql__db('nova').with(
         :user        => 'nova',
         :password    => 'qwerty',
-        :charset     => 'latin1',
+        :charset     => 'utf8',
         :require     => "Class[Mysql::Config]"
       )}
     end
 
     context 'when overriding charset' do
       let :params do
-        { :charset => 'utf8' }.merge(required_params)
+        { :charset => 'latin1' }.merge(required_params)
       end
 
       it { should contain_mysql__db('nova').with_charset(params[:charset]) }