Set MySQL server variable collation_connection to utf8_unicode_ci on AWS RDS

Question

So my goal is to set all the character sets and collations to utf8 and utf8_unicode_ci.

Im using an AWS RDS to host the MySQL server.

Ive set the collation_connection variable to utf8_unicode_ci in the Parameter group for the RDS. .

Ive then rebooted my RDS and when going to MySQL console it shows the following values for variables.

mysql> show variables like "%character%";show variables like "%collation%";
+--------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| Variable_name            | Value                                     |
+--------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| character_set_client     | utf8                                      |
| character_set_connection | utf8                                      |
| character_set_database   | utf8                                      |
| character_set_filesystem | binary                                    |
| character_set_results    | utf8                                      |
| character_set_server     | utf8                                      |
| character_set_system     | utf8                                      |
| character_sets_dir       | /rdsdbbin/mysql-5.6.22.R1/share/charsets/ |
+--------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
8 rows in set (0.01 sec)

+----------------------+-----------------+
| Variable_name        | Value           |
+----------------------+-----------------+
| collation_connection | utf8_general_ci |
| collation_database   | utf8_unicode_ci |
| collation_server     | utf8_unicode_ci |
+----------------------+-----------------+

Im not sure why the collation_connection is set as utf8_general_ci

Answer 1

The variables which you see here are the current client session's variables:

+----------------------+-----------------+
| Variable_name        | Value           |
+----------------------+-----------------+
| collation_connection | utf8_general_ci |
| collation_database   | utf8_unicode_ci |
| collation_server     | utf8_unicode_ci |
+----------------------+-----------------+

So, you need to run the following commands, when you initiate the connection, on the client from which you are connecting:

SET collation_connection = 'utf8_unicode_ci';