Contortions needed to create an AWS RDS database using UTF-8

Shell log.sh

brew install rds-command-line-tools

rds-create-db-parameter-group mysql-utf8 -f mysql5.1 -d "MySQL 5.1 configured for UTF-8"

rds-modify-db-parameter-group mysql-utf8 \
    --parameters="name=character_set_server, value=utf8, method=immediate" \
    --parameters="name=character_set_client, value=utf8, method=immediate" \
    --parameters="name=character_set_results,value=utf8,method=immediate" \
    --parameters="name=collation_server, value=utf8_general_ci, method=immediate" \
    --parameters="name=collation_connection, value=utf8_general_ci, method=immediate"

# For an existing instance:
rds-modify-db-instance wdl-test --db-parameter-group-name mysql-utf8
rds-reboot-db-instance wdl-test

# To create a new one:
rds-create-db-instance --auto-minor-version-upgrade y \
    --db-instance-class db.m1.small \
    --db-name wdl_test \
    --engine mysql \
    --db-parameter-group-name mysql-utf8 \
    --multi-az true \
    --master-user-password - \
    --port 3306 \
    -r, --backup-retention-period 1 \
    -s, --allocated-storage 5 \
    --master-username wdl_root \
    --engine-version 5.1.57