diff --git a/contrib/vagrant/Vagrantfile b/contrib/vagrant/Vagrantfile
index 7e90d164..d6c08c7e 100644
--- a/contrib/vagrant/Vagrantfile
+++ b/contrib/vagrant/Vagrantfile
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ SCRIPT
     fedora.vm.network :private_network, ip: "192.168.27.101"
 
     fedora.vm.provision :shell, :privileged => true, :inline => "yum update -y vim-minimal" # RH Bug 1066983
-    fedora.vm.provision :shell, :privileged => true, :inline => "yum install -y git-core MySQL-python"
+    fedora.vm.provision :shell, :privileged => true, :inline => "yum install -y git-core"
 
     fedora.vm.provision :shell, :privileged => false, :inline => $script
   end
diff --git a/doc/source/backends/powerdns.rst b/doc/source/backends/powerdns.rst
index 86608fb1..3d5201f3 100644
--- a/doc/source/backends/powerdns.rst
+++ b/doc/source/backends/powerdns.rst
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ You need to configure PowerDNS to use the MySQL backend.
 3. Configure the options for designate-central - specifaclly "connection" to point to your MySQL database::
 
     [backend:powerdns]
-    connection = mysql://<username>:<password>@<host>:<port>/<dbname>
+    connection = mysql+pymysql://<username>:<password>@<host>:<port>/<dbname>
 
 4. Setup the database schema.
 
diff --git a/doc/source/examples/basic-config-sample.conf b/doc/source/examples/basic-config-sample.conf
index 0c6f5dbc..61ed4dd8 100644
--- a/doc/source/examples/basic-config-sample.conf
+++ b/doc/source/examples/basic-config-sample.conf
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ options = port: 53, host: 127.0.0.1
 # SQLAlchemy Pool Manager Cache
 #-----------------------
 [pool_manager_cache:sqlalchemy]
-connection = mysql://root:password@127.0.0.1/designate_pool_manager
+connection = mysql+pymysql://root:password@127.0.0.1/designate_pool_manager?charset=utf8
 #connection_debug = 100
 #connection_trace = False
 #sqlite_synchronous = True
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ connection = mysql://root:password@127.0.0.1/designate_pool_manager
 [storage:sqlalchemy]
 # Database connection string - to configure options for a given implementation
 # like sqlalchemy or other see below
-connection = mysql://root:password@127.0.0.1/designate
+connection = mysql+pymysql://root:password@127.0.0.1/designate?charset=utf8
 #connection_debug = 100
 #connection_trace = True
 #sqlite_synchronous = True
diff --git a/doc/source/install/ubuntu-dev.rst b/doc/source/install/ubuntu-dev.rst
index 9525a8fc..4060e398 100644
--- a/doc/source/install/ubuntu-dev.rst
+++ b/doc/source/install/ubuntu-dev.rst
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@ By default, the MySQL root password for Designate is "password". You can:
 
 * Change the root password to "password"
 * If you want your own password, edit the designate.conf file and change any instance of
-   "mysql://root:password@127.0.0.1/designate" to "mysql://root:YOUR_PASSWORD@127.0.0.1/designate"
+   "mysql+pymysql://root:password@127.0.0.1/designate?charset=utf8" to "mysql+pymysql://root:YOUR_PASSWORD@127.0.0.1/designate?charset=utf8"
 
 You can change your MySQL password anytime with the following command::