diff --git a/patroni/postgresql.py b/patroni/postgresql.py
index e1e96fb2..9b51da2c 100644
--- a/patroni/postgresql.py
+++ b/patroni/postgresql.py
@@ -169,11 +169,8 @@ class Postgresql:
 
     @staticmethod
     def initdb_allowed_option(name):
-        allowed_options = set(['auth', 'auth-host', 'auth-local', 'encoding', 'data-checksums',
-                               'locale', 'lc-collate', 'lc-ctype', 'lc-messages', 'lc-monetary',
-                               'lc-numeric', 'lc-time', 'text-search-config', 'xlogdir', 'debug', 'noclean'])
-        if name not in allowed_options:
-            raise Exception('{} option for initdb is unknown or not allowed'.format(name))
+        if name in ['pgdata', 'nosync', 'pwfile', 'sync-only']:
+            raise Exception('{} option for initdb is not allowed'.format(name))
         return True
 
     def get_initdb_options(self):
diff --git a/tests/test_postgresql.py b/tests/test_postgresql.py
index 6f0e807a..3e8caf47 100644
--- a/tests/test_postgresql.py
+++ b/tests/test_postgresql.py
@@ -190,7 +190,7 @@ class TestPostgresql(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_get_initdb_options(self):
         self.p.initdb_options = [{'encoding': 'UTF8'}, 'data-checksums']
         self.assertEquals(self.p.get_initdb_options(), ['--encoding=UTF8', '--data-checksums'])
-        self.p.initdb_options = [{'foo': 'bar'}]
+        self.p.initdb_options = [{'pgdata': 'bar'}]
         self.assertRaises(Exception, self.p.get_initdb_options)
         self.p.initdb_options = [{'foo': 'bar', 1: 2}]
         self.assertRaises(Exception, self.p.get_initdb_options)