Use of UTF-8 in a directory server

To decide which code page to use, you must understand how a directory server uses code page to store and access directory data.

A UTF-8 database has a fixed collation sequence and that sequence is the binary order of the UTF-8 characters. It is not possible to do language-sensitive collation with a UTF-8 database.

For your LDAP applications or users to obtain the following results, then UTF-8 might not be the appropriate character set for your database:

• A search with an ordering filter, such as "name >= SMITH", and if you expect the order similar to your locale.
• A search with the control to sort the results, and if you expect the order similar to your locale.

In such situations, the LDAP server system and all the client systems must be run with the same character set and locale.

For example, an LDAP server database that is configured with the Spanish locale returns search results based on order of the character, as Spanish-language clients expect. Such configuration limits your directory user community to a single character set in that locale and collation sequence.