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Microsoft SQL Server database Unicode support

Prior to version 9.40, HPE Service Manager used the VARCHAR, CHAR, and TEXT data types to store text strings in a Microsoft SQL Server database. Microsoft SQL Server relies on database collation to support a specific language. Although some languages share the same collation, most languages do not. As a result, Service Manager did not support multiple languages when running on a SQL Server database.

Service Manager 9.40 is enhanced to support the Unicode data type on SQL Server. You can store text string in multiple languages by using the Unicode data type. When you run the server configuration utility, if you select the Use Unicode Data Type check box for SQL Server (see the following figure), Service Manager creates data with the Unicode data type when it loads the applications and demo data.

The following table provides the mapping between the old and new data types.

Non-Unicode Unicode
VARCHAR NVARCHAR
CHAR

NCHAR

Note This occurs only when the CHAR field length is greater than 1.

TEXT NVARCHAR(MAX)

The operation is not reversible, which means once you have enabled this option, you must use the Unicode data type when adding new data. When your SQL Server database uses the Unicode data type, the read-only flag Use Unicode Data Type in the sqlserver record of the sqldbinfo table is automatically turned on.

Note The following four system tables will not use Unicode: dbdict, licenseinfo, lock, and lockshared.

Support of the Unicode data type is available only for new installations of the Service Manager 9.40 or later applications. If you are upgrading from a previous version of the applications, this option is not available.

For information about how to enable the Unicode support, see Install the Service Manager Server.