According to this article https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143550.aspx SQL Server replication from a 2008 R2 publisher to a 2016 subscriber is not supported.
We need to replicate from 2008 R2 to 2016 for a short period of time. I am proposing that we Republish via SQL Server 2014 to accomplish this with a 2016 distributor. I have tried the following but didn't get it to work:
SERVER1: Windows 2008 R2, SQL 2008 R2. Publisher.
SERVER2: Windows 2012 R2, SQL 2014 named instance. Subscribed to SERVER1. Distributor for SERVER1. Republisher.
SERVER2: SQL 2016 named instance. Distributor for 2014 instance. Subscriber to 2014 named instance.
I couldn't get the publication on the 2014 named instance to use the 2016 distributor. I could only get it to work with the 2014 distributor, so I tried the following solution which DOES work where the only difference is there is one distributor (instead of two) on the 2016 instance:
SERVER1: Windows 2008 R2, SQL 2008 R2. Publisher.
SERVER2: Windows 2012 R2, SQL 2014 named instance. Subscribed to SERVER1. Republisher.
SERVER2: SQL 2016 named instance. Distributor for 2008 R2 and 2014 instances. Subscriber to 2014 named instance.
Does anyone see an issue with solution 2 proposed? Will this be supported by Microsoft?