diff --git a/manifests/db/mysql.pp b/manifests/db/mysql.pp
index ae011931..8fd06be8 100644
--- a/manifests/db/mysql.pp
+++ b/manifests/db/mysql.pp
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
 #   the database charset. Optional. Defaults to 'utf8'
 #
 # [*collate*]
-#   the database collation. Optional. Defaults to 'utf8_unicode_ci'
+#   the database collation. Optional. Defaults to 'utf8_general_ci'
 #
 # [*cluster_id*]
 #   (Optional) TODO
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ class cinder::db::mysql (
   $host          = '127.0.0.1',
   $allowed_hosts = undef,
   $charset       = 'utf8',
-  $collate       = 'utf8_unicode_ci',
+  $collate       = 'utf8_general_ci',
   $cluster_id    = 'localzone',
   # DEPRECATED
   $mysql_module  = undef,
diff --git a/spec/classes/cinder_db_mysql_spec.rb b/spec/classes/cinder_db_mysql_spec.rb
index 86ebb442..0090f10e 100644
--- a/spec/classes/cinder_db_mysql_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/classes/cinder_db_mysql_spec.rb
@@ -23,7 +23,8 @@ describe 'cinder::db::mysql' do
       :user          => 'cinder',
       :password_hash => '*D821809F681A40A6E379B50D0463EFAE20BDD122',
       :host          => '127.0.0.1',
-      :charset       => 'utf8'
+      :charset       => 'utf8',
+      :collate       => 'utf8_general_ci',
      ) }
   end
   describe "overriding allowed_hosts param to array" do