diff --git a/manifests/db/mysql.pp b/manifests/db/mysql.pp
index 6fd47c45..020f9f2f 100644
--- a/manifests/db/mysql.pp
+++ b/manifests/db/mysql.pp
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
 #    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'
 #
 #  [*mysql_module*]
 #    (optional) Deprecated. Does nothing.
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ class ceilometer::db::mysql(
   $host          = '127.0.0.1',
   $allowed_hosts = undef,
   $charset       = 'utf8',
-  $collate       = 'utf8_unicode_ci',
+  $collate       = 'utf8_general_ci',
   $mysql_module  = undef,
 ) {
 
diff --git a/spec/classes/ceilometer_db_mysql_spec.rb b/spec/classes/ceilometer_db_mysql_spec.rb
index a8015db3..64a52b95 100644
--- a/spec/classes/ceilometer_db_mysql_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/classes/ceilometer_db_mysql_spec.rb
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ describe 'ceilometer::db::mysql' do
       :user         => 'ceilometer',
       :host         => 'localhost',
       :charset      => 'utf8',
-      :collate      => 'utf8_unicode_ci',
+      :collate      => 'utf8_general_ci',
     }
   end