diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index c1dcad3fc..57ba1df73 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -16,7 +16,10 @@ ENV GITLAB_VERSION=${VERSION} \
     GITLAB_CACHE_DIR="/etc/docker-gitlab" \
     RAILS_ENV=production \
     NODE_ENV=production \
-    NO_SOURCEMAPS=true
+    NO_SOURCEMAPS=true \
+    # v18.5.2 : minimum = 16.5, maximum = 17.x (currently 17.6, is 170006)
+    POSTGRESQL_SERVER_REQUIRED_VERSION_MINIMUM=160005 \
+    POSTGRESQL_SERVER_REQUIRED_VERSION_MAXIMUM=170100
 
 ENV GITLAB_INSTALL_DIR="${GITLAB_HOME}/gitlab" \
     GITLAB_SHELL_INSTALL_DIR="${GITLAB_HOME}/gitlab-shell" \
@@ -49,7 +52,7 @@ RUN set -ex && \
  && DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install --no-install-recommends -y \
       sudo supervisor logrotate locales curl \
       nginx openssh-server redis-tools \
-      postgresql-client-13 postgresql-client-14 postgresql-client-15 postgresql-client-16 postgresql-client-17 \
+      postgresql-client-16 postgresql-client-17 postgresql-client-18 \
       python3 python3-docutils nodejs yarn gettext-base graphicsmagick \
       libpq5 zlib1g libyaml-dev libssl-dev libgdbm-dev libre2-dev \
       libreadline-dev libncurses5-dev libffi-dev curl openssh-server libxml2-dev libxslt-dev \
diff --git a/assets/runtime/functions b/assets/runtime/functions
index d714f8c80..6de9c4c3f 100644
--- a/assets/runtime/functions
+++ b/assets/runtime/functions
@@ -190,13 +190,25 @@ gitlab_generate_postgresqlrc() {
 
   echo "- Detected server version: ${DB_SERVER_VERSION}"
 
+  # remove leading zero (prior to 10.x it was like "090605" so that cannot treated as number)
+  DB_SERVER_VERSION="${DB_SERVER_VERSION##+(0)}"
+
   # Anyway, we can get major version (8, 9, 10 and so on) by dividing by 10000.
   # DB_SERVER_VERSION_MAJOR=${DB_SERVER_VERSION%%.*}
   DB_SERVER_VERSION_MAJOR=$((DB_SERVER_VERSION/10000))
   DB_CLIENT_VERSION_PACKAGE_NAME=
 
+  # Check version requirement
+  if [[ "${DB_SERVER_VERSION}" -lt "${POSTGRESQL_SERVER_REQUIRED_VERSION_MINIMUM}" 
+     || "${DB_SERVER_VERSION}" -gt "${POSTGRESQL_SERVER_REQUIRED_VERSION_MAXIMUM}"
+  ]]; then
+    echo "  Version requirement mismatch! (${POSTGRESQL_SERVER_REQUIRED_VERSION_MINIMUM} < ${DB_SERVER_VERSION} < ${POSTGRESQL_SERVER_REQUIRED_VERSION_MAXIMUM})"
+    echo "  Aborting.."
+    return 1
+  fi
+
   if [[ "${DB_SERVER_VERSION_MAJOR}" -ge 10 ]]; then
-    # v10 or later: use "rought major version" as version number in package name
+    # v10 or later: use "rough major version" as version number in package name
     DB_CLIENT_VERSION_PACKAGE_NAME=${DB_SERVER_VERSION_MAJOR}
   else
     # prior to v10: convert