Having successfully configured merge replication between a number of SQL version 12.0 SQL Express databases and a SQL 14.0 server, hosting the respective distributor databases, I have run into a problem with the final database (which is SQL Version 10.5). The first thing that I noticed was that when the SQL Express backup was restored to the SQL version 14.0 server, an upgrade process occurred, which I did not see when restoring restoring 12.0 databases.
The were no problems creating the merge publication but there was an error when attempting to create the subscription for the SQL version 10.0 database. When the Subscription Wizard attempted to connect to the subscriber database, the following error occurred.
Invalid object name 'sys.availability_group_listeners'. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 208)
The SSMS has no problem connecting to the SQL 10.5 database from the SQL 14.0 server, so I assume that this is not a basic connection error, but more related to something that the Subscription Wizard attempts to immediately after connecting.
I think that I probably need to upgrade the the SQL 10.5 SQLEXPRESS to at least SQL 12.0, but before I do that, I would like to see whether this is actually necessary.
R Campbell