PostgreSQL upgrade to v18. Closes #3272

[NikhilRaikwar]

Description

Upgrades the PostgreSQL Docker image from version 16 to version 18 for the upcoming IntelOwl v7.0.0 release.

This PR includes:

• Updated postgres.override.yml to use postgres:18-alpine
• New isolated volume postgres_data_v18 to prevent conflicts with v6 data
• Removed custom PGDATA environment variable (using PostgreSQL defaults)
• Fixed volume mount configuration to prevent anonymous volume creation (addresses issue from Empty database after upgrade 2.1.0 -> 3.0.0 GreedyBear-Project/GreedyBear#766)

Related PRs/Issues

• Closes upgrade postgres local container from 16 to 20 (or more recent) #3272
• Documentation PR: docs: add PostgreSQL v16 to v18 migration guide for v7.0.0 docs#51

Technical Details

What Changed

Files Modified:

1. docker/postgres.override.yml

   • Updated PostgreSQL image: postgres:16-alpine → postgres:18-alpine
   • Changed volume name: postgres_data → postgres_data_v18 (for v6/v7 isolation)
   • Mount configuration: postgres_data_v18:/var/lib/postgresql/data

2. docker/env_file_postgres_template

   • Removed custom PGDATA variable (uses PostgreSQL's default /var/lib/postgresql/data)

Why These Changes?

Volume Isolation: Using a new volume name (postgres_data_v18) ensures users' v6 data remains untouched during the upgrade. This prevents accidental data loss and allows for safe rollback if needed.

Anonymous Volume Prevention: The configuration prevents the issue documented in GreedyBear#766 where mounting to a parent directory causes Docker to create shadow anonymous volumes, leading to data loss.

Testing

• ✅ Configuration validated with docker compose config
• ✅ Linters passed (no code changes, only Docker config)
• ✅ Migration guide created and verified step-by-step in docs PR

Migration Guide

Users can follow the comprehensive 12-step migration guide in the documentation PR to safely migrate their data from PostgreSQL 16 to 18.

Type of change

• Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue).
• New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality).
• Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to not work as expected).

Checklist

• I have read and understood the rules about how to Contribute to this project
• The pull request is for the branch develop
• A new plugin (analyzer, connector, visualizer, playbook, pivot or ingestor) was added or changed, in which case:
  • I strictly followed the documentation "How to create a Plugin"
  • Usage file was updated. A link to the PR to the docs repo has been added as a comment here.
  • Advanced-Usage was updated (in case the plugin provides additional optional configuration). A link to the PR to the docs repo has been added as a comment here.
  • I have dumped the configuration from Django Admin using the dumpplugin command and added it in the project as a data migration. ("How to share a plugin with the community")
  • If a File analyzer was added and it supports a mimetype which is not already supported, you added a sample of that type inside the archive test_files.zip and you added the default tests for that mimetype in test_classes.py.
  • If you created a new analyzer and it is free (does not require any API key), please add it in the FREE_TO_USE_ANALYZERS playbook by following this guide.
  • Check if it could make sense to add that analyzer/connector to other freely available playbooks.
  • I have provided the resulting raw JSON of a finished analysis and a screenshot of the results.
  • If the plugin interacts with an external service, I have created an attribute called precisely url that contains this information. This is required for Health Checks (HEAD HTTP requests).
  • If a new analyzer has beed added, I have created a unittest for it in the appropriate dir. I have also mocked all the external calls, so that no real calls are being made while testing.
  • I have added that raw JSON sample to the get_mocker_response() method of the unittest class. This serves us to provide a valid sample for testing.
  • I have created the corresponding DataModel for the new analyzer following the documentation
• I have inserted the copyright banner at the start of the file: # This file is a part of IntelOwl https://github.com/intelowlproject/IntelOwl # See the file 'LICENSE' for copying permission. (N/A - only modified Docker configuration files)
• Please avoid adding new libraries as requirements whenever it is possible. Use new libraries only if strictly needed to solve the issue you are working for. In case of doubt, ask a maintainer permission to use a specific library. (No new libraries added)
• If external libraries/packages with restrictive licenses were added, they were added in the Legal Notice section. (N/A - no new libraries)
• Linters (Ruff) gave 0 errors. If you have correctly installed pre-commit, it does check these checks and adjustments on your behalf.
• I have added tests for the feature/bug I solved (see tests folder). All the tests (new and old ones) gave 0 errors. (Infrastructure change - validated with docker compose config)
• If the GUI has been modified:
  • I have a provided a screenshot of the result in the PR.
  • I have created new frontend tests for the new component or updated existing ones.
• After you had submitted the PR, if DeepSource, Django Doctors or other third-party linters have triggered any alerts during the CI checks, I have solved those alerts.

Important Rules

• If you miss to compile the Checklist properly, your PR won't be reviewed by the maintainers.
• Everytime you make changes to the PR and you think the work is done, you should explicitly ask for a review by using GitHub's reviewing system detailed here.

[github-actions]

This pull request has been marked as stale because it has had no activity for 10 days. If you are still working on this, please provide some updates or it will be closed in 5 days.

[github-actions]

This pull request has been closed because it had no updates in 15 days. If you're still working on this fell free to reopen.

[mlodic]

this change requires proof that if works as expected and should be merged only when ready for the next major

[NikhilRaikwar]

Hi @mlodic,

I apologize for the previous confusion. I’ve been testing the setup locally to make sure it aligns with the PostgreSQL 18 requirements you mentioned.

In my local environment, I changed the mount to:
postgres_data_v18:/var/lib/postgresql

I verified that data is preserved after a full restart. Here are the outputs from my terminal:

Postgres Logs:

fixing permissions on existing directory /var/lib/postgresql/pgdata ... ok
creating subdirectories ... ok
...
LOG: database system is ready to accept connections

Persistence Check (after restart):

 id |             status              |         timestamp
----+---------------------------------+----------------------------
  1 | Persistence Works - Postgres 18 | 2026-02-24 18:27:01.265311

Container Inspect:

"Destination": "/var/lib/postgresql"

This configuration seems to resolve the initialization issues by letting the image manage its own subdirectories. Please let me know what you think of this approach. If it looks good, I'll push the changes.