The default character set for Aster databases is UTF-8, and the Aster team recommends that you load only UTF-8 formatted data when loading to char, varchar, and text columns.
For the tools you use to prepare files and to connect to Aster, make sure you have set the default character set to UTF-8. This is particularly important if you are loading data from a Windows-based machine. For example, if you will use an SSH client (e.g., putty) to run ncluster_loader, make sure you set the SSH client’s default character set to UTF-8.
We recommend that, prior to loading, you convert your text files to UTF-8. For example, if you’re a Notepad++ user, you can use the command, “Convert to UTF8 without BOM.”