diff --git a/br/pkg/lightning/backend/local/local.go b/br/pkg/lightning/backend/local/local.go
index c04a0b9278282..39b8cb60f899e 100644
--- a/br/pkg/lightning/backend/local/local.go
+++ b/br/pkg/lightning/backend/local/local.go
@@ -2314,11 +2314,9 @@ func (local *local) CleanupEngine(ctx context.Context, engineUUID uuid.UUID) err
 }
 
 func (local *local) CheckRequirements(ctx context.Context, checkCtx *backend.CheckCtx) error {
-	versionStr, err := local.g.GetSQLExecutor().ObtainStringWithLog(
-		ctx,
-		"SELECT version();",
-		"check TiDB version",
-		log.L())
+	// TODO: support lightning via SQL
+	db, _ := local.g.GetDB()
+	versionStr, err := version.FetchVersion(ctx, db)
 	if err != nil {
 		return errors.Trace(err)
 	}
@@ -2332,8 +2330,8 @@ func (local *local) CheckRequirements(ctx context.Context, checkCtx *backend.Che
 		return err
 	}
 
-	tidbVersion, _ := version.ExtractTiDBVersion(versionStr)
-	return checkTiFlashVersion(ctx, local.g, checkCtx, *tidbVersion)
+	serverInfo := version.ParseServerInfo(versionStr)
+	return checkTiFlashVersion(ctx, local.g, checkCtx, *serverInfo.ServerVersion)
 }
 
 func checkTiDBVersion(_ context.Context, versionStr string, requiredMinVersion, requiredMaxVersion semver.Version) error {
diff --git a/br/pkg/lightning/backend/tidb/tidb.go b/br/pkg/lightning/backend/tidb/tidb.go
index db6c4c47b8544..5a60e7f8fd589 100644
--- a/br/pkg/lightning/backend/tidb/tidb.go
+++ b/br/pkg/lightning/backend/tidb/tidb.go
@@ -450,13 +450,10 @@ func (be *tidbBackend) FetchRemoteTableModels(ctx context.Context, schemaName st
 
 	err = s.Transact(ctx, "fetch table columns", func(c context.Context, tx *sql.Tx) error {
 		var versionStr string
-		if err = tx.QueryRowContext(ctx, "SELECT version()").Scan(&versionStr); err != nil {
-			return err
-		}
-		tidbVersion, err := version.ExtractTiDBVersion(versionStr)
-		if err != nil {
+		if versionStr, err = version.FetchVersion(ctx, tx); err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
+		serverInfo := version.ParseServerInfo(versionStr)
 
 		rows, e := tx.Query(`
 			SELECT table_name, column_name, column_type, extra
@@ -513,7 +510,7 @@ func (be *tidbBackend) FetchRemoteTableModels(ctx context.Context, schemaName st
 		}
 		// shard_row_id/auto random is only available after tidb v4.0.0
 		// `show table next_row_id` is also not available before tidb v4.0.0
-		if tidbVersion.Major < 4 {
+		if serverInfo.ServerType != version.ServerTypeTiDB || serverInfo.ServerVersion.Major < 4 {
 			return nil
 		}
 
diff --git a/br/pkg/lightning/restore/restore.go b/br/pkg/lightning/restore/restore.go
index 0478dc99ad127..b323c5025d9c9 100644
--- a/br/pkg/lightning/restore/restore.go
+++ b/br/pkg/lightning/restore/restore.go
@@ -1393,16 +1393,13 @@ func (tr *TableRestore) restoreTable(
 			zap.Int("filesCnt", cp.CountChunks()),
 		)
 	} else if cp.Status < checkpoints.CheckpointStatusAllWritten {
-		versionStr, err := rc.tidbGlue.GetSQLExecutor().ObtainStringWithLog(
-			ctx, "SELECT version()", "fetch tidb version", log.L())
+		db, _ := rc.tidbGlue.GetDB()
+		versionStr, err := version.FetchVersion(ctx, db)
 		if err != nil {
 			return false, errors.Trace(err)
 		}
 
-		tidbVersion, err := version.ExtractTiDBVersion(versionStr)
-		if err != nil {
-			return false, errors.Trace(err)
-		}
+		versionInfo := version.ParseServerInfo(versionStr)
 
 		if err := tr.populateChunks(ctx, rc, cp); err != nil {
 			return false, errors.Trace(err)
@@ -1417,7 +1414,7 @@ func (tr *TableRestore) restoreTable(
 		}
 
 		// "show table next_row_id" is only available after v4.0.0
-		if tidbVersion.Major >= 4 && (rc.cfg.TikvImporter.Backend == config.BackendLocal || rc.cfg.TikvImporter.Backend == config.BackendImporter) {
+		if versionInfo.ServerVersion.Major >= 4 && (rc.cfg.TikvImporter.Backend == config.BackendLocal || rc.cfg.TikvImporter.Backend == config.BackendImporter) {
 			// first, insert a new-line into meta table
 			if err = metaMgr.InitTableMeta(ctx); err != nil {
 				return false, err
diff --git a/br/pkg/lightning/restore/restore_test.go b/br/pkg/lightning/restore/restore_test.go
index da3d38a15477c..6c3cddb5e9fc0 100644
--- a/br/pkg/lightning/restore/restore_test.go
+++ b/br/pkg/lightning/restore/restore_test.go
@@ -969,8 +969,12 @@ func (s *tableRestoreSuite) TestTableRestoreMetrics(c *C) {
 	}()
 	exec := mock.NewMockSQLExecutor(controller)
 	g.EXPECT().GetSQLExecutor().Return(exec).AnyTimes()
-	exec.EXPECT().ObtainStringWithLog(gomock.Any(), "SELECT version()", gomock.Any(), gomock.Any()).
-		Return("5.7.25-TiDB-v5.0.1", nil).AnyTimes()
+	db, mock, err := sqlmock.New()
+	c.Assert(err, IsNil)
+	g.EXPECT().GetDB().Return(db, nil).AnyTimes()
+	mock.ExpectQuery("SELECT tidb_version\\(\\);").
+		WillReturnRows(sqlmock.NewRows([]string{"tidb_version"}).
+			AddRow("Release Version: v5.2.1\nEdition: Community\n"))
 
 	web.BroadcastInitProgress(rc.dbMetas)
 
diff --git a/br/pkg/version/version.go b/br/pkg/version/version.go
index 10d24d5f4bb22..70f990d17eb12 100644
--- a/br/pkg/version/version.go
+++ b/br/pkg/version/version.go
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ import (
 	"github.com/pingcap/kvproto/pkg/metapb"
 	"github.com/pingcap/log"
 	berrors "github.com/pingcap/tidb/br/pkg/errors"
+	"github.com/pingcap/tidb/br/pkg/lightning/common"
+	"github.com/pingcap/tidb/br/pkg/logutil"
 	"github.com/pingcap/tidb/br/pkg/version/build"
 	pd "github.com/tikv/pd/client"
 	"go.uber.org/zap"
@@ -213,13 +215,13 @@ func ExtractTiDBVersion(version string) (*semver.Version, error) {
 	return semver.NewVersion(rawVersion)
 }
 
-// CheckTiDBVersion is equals to ExtractTiDBVersion followed by CheckVersion.
+// CheckTiDBVersion is equals to ParseServerInfo followed by CheckVersion.
 func CheckTiDBVersion(versionStr string, requiredMinVersion, requiredMaxVersion semver.Version) error {
-	version, err := ExtractTiDBVersion(versionStr)
-	if err != nil {
-		return errors.Trace(err)
+	serverInfo := ParseServerInfo(versionStr)
+	if serverInfo.ServerType != ServerTypeTiDB {
+		return errors.Errorf("server with version '%s' is not TiDB", versionStr)
 	}
-	return CheckVersion("TiDB", *version, requiredMinVersion, requiredMaxVersion)
+	return CheckVersion("TiDB", *serverInfo.ServerVersion, requiredMinVersion, requiredMaxVersion)
 }
 
 // NormalizeBackupVersion normalizes the version string from backupmeta.
@@ -238,3 +240,120 @@ func NormalizeBackupVersion(version string) *semver.Version {
 	}
 	return ver
 }
+
+// FetchVersion gets the version information from the database server
+//
+// NOTE: the executed query will be:
+// - `select tidb_version()` if target db is tidb
+// - `select version()` if target db is not tidb
+func FetchVersion(ctx context.Context, db common.QueryExecutor) (string, error) {
+	var versionInfo string
+	const queryTiDB = "SELECT tidb_version();"
+	tidbRow := db.QueryRowContext(ctx, queryTiDB)
+	err := tidbRow.Scan(&versionInfo)
+	if err == nil {
+		return versionInfo, nil
+	}
+	log.L().Warn("select tidb_version() failed, will fallback to 'select version();'", logutil.ShortError(err))
+	const query = "SELECT version();"
+	row := db.QueryRowContext(ctx, query)
+	err = row.Scan(&versionInfo)
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", errors.Annotatef(err, "sql: %s", query)
+	}
+	return versionInfo, nil
+}
+
+type ServerType int
+
+const (
+	// ServerTypeUnknown represents unknown server type
+	ServerTypeUnknown = iota
+	// ServerTypeMySQL represents MySQL server type
+	ServerTypeMySQL
+	// ServerTypeMariaDB represents MariaDB server type
+	ServerTypeMariaDB
+	// ServerTypeTiDB represents TiDB server type
+	ServerTypeTiDB
+
+	// ServerTypeAll represents All server types
+	ServerTypeAll
+)
+
+var serverTypeString = []string{
+	ServerTypeUnknown: "Unknown",
+	ServerTypeMySQL:   "MySQL",
+	ServerTypeMariaDB: "MariaDB",
+	ServerTypeTiDB:    "TiDB",
+}
+
+// String implements Stringer.String
+func (s ServerType) String() string {
+	if s >= ServerTypeAll {
+		return ""
+	}
+	return serverTypeString[s]
+}
+
+// ServerInfo is the combination of ServerType and ServerInfo
+type ServerInfo struct {
+	ServerType    ServerType
+	ServerVersion *semver.Version
+}
+
+var (
+	mysqlVersionRegex = regexp.MustCompile(`^\d+\.\d+\.\d+([0-9A-Za-z-]+(\.[0-9A-Za-z-]+)*)?`)
+	// `select version()` result
+	tidbVersionRegex = regexp.MustCompile(`-[v]?\d+\.\d+\.\d+([0-9A-Za-z-]+(\.[0-9A-Za-z-]+)*)?`)
+	// `select tidb_version()` result
+	tidbReleaseVersionRegex = regexp.MustCompile(`v\d+\.\d+\.\d+([0-9A-Za-z-]+(\.[0-9A-Za-z-]+)*)?`)
+)
+
+// ParseServerInfo parses exported server type and version info from version string
+func ParseServerInfo(src string) ServerInfo {
+	lowerCase := strings.ToLower(src)
+	serverInfo := ServerInfo{}
+	isReleaseVersion := false
+	switch {
+	case strings.Contains(lowerCase, "release version:"):
+		// this version string is tidb release version
+		serverInfo.ServerType = ServerTypeTiDB
+		isReleaseVersion = true
+	case strings.Contains(lowerCase, "tidb"):
+		serverInfo.ServerType = ServerTypeTiDB
+	case strings.Contains(lowerCase, "mariadb"):
+		serverInfo.ServerType = ServerTypeMariaDB
+	case mysqlVersionRegex.MatchString(lowerCase):
+		serverInfo.ServerType = ServerTypeMySQL
+	default:
+		serverInfo.ServerType = ServerTypeUnknown
+	}
+
+	var versionStr string
+	if serverInfo.ServerType == ServerTypeTiDB {
+		if isReleaseVersion {
+			versionStr = tidbReleaseVersionRegex.FindString(src)
+		} else {
+			versionStr = tidbVersionRegex.FindString(src)[1:]
+		}
+		versionStr = strings.TrimPrefix(versionStr, "v")
+	} else {
+		versionStr = mysqlVersionRegex.FindString(src)
+	}
+
+	var err error
+	serverInfo.ServerVersion, err = semver.NewVersion(versionStr)
+	if err != nil {
+		log.L().Warn("fail to parse version",
+			zap.String("version", versionStr))
+	}
+	var version string
+	if serverInfo.ServerVersion != nil {
+		version = serverInfo.ServerVersion.String()
+	}
+	log.L().Info("detect server version",
+		zap.String("type", serverInfo.ServerType.String()),
+		zap.String("version", version))
+
+	return serverInfo
+}