The query here is pertaining to Replication support between Publisher instance running on SQL Server 2014 Ent. Ed. and Subscriber instance being on SQL Server 2017 Ent. Ed. Currently all DB instances (Publisher, Distributor & Subscriber) are running on SQL Server 2014 Ent. Ed.
But, we are undergoing migration activity where the Subscriber DB is getting upgraded to SQL server 2017 Ent. Ed. first then it is decided to configure new Distribution instance on a separate machine that will run SQL server2017 Ent. Ed. so that we can configure replication from Publisher running on SQL server 2014 Ent. Ed. , Distributor instance running on SQL server 2017 Ent. Ed & Subscriber instance running on SQL server 2017 Ent. Ed.
Now, in this migration activity we are trying to identify an approach that will help us to configure replication from Publisher instance(SQL 2014 Ent. Ed.) to the newly created Distributor instance(SQL 2017 Ent. Ed.) without hampering the existing replication setup.
Also We would like to know is there any other way to achieve this or issues that could arise due to this approach ?