Merge Replication from 2012 SQL Server publisher/distributor to 2014 SQL Express subscriber

Question

Hi, I'm having a question about which version to use when running SQL Merge Replication.
In my test enviroment I have a SQL 2012 server running as Publisher and Distributor for my Merge Replication. I have now set up a test client running Win7 with SQL 2014 Express as a subscriber. The subscription initializes and runs perfectly.
But according to the SQL documentation this should not be possible as it states that the subscriber should have a version number equal or lower than the publisher. My subscription client was set ut using SQL-scripting, if I try using the wizard it will just
cause an error message telling that this is not possible since the client has a newer version number. I still not encountered any problems after I set it up using the script with the sp_addmergepullsubscription and sp_addmergepullsubscription_agent procedures.
The roll-out of my solution will start in a few weeks and I now have to decide whether to use 2014 Express or 2012 Express on the clients. Using 2014 Express will save me for a lot of upgades in a year or two. The 2012 SQL Server running as publisher/distributor
will be upgraded to/replaced with a 2014 Server in some few months.
I'm looking for good advices and recommendations for what to choose on the clients, 2012 Express or 2014 Express. Are the any known problems with using 2014 Express as a subscriber to a publisher/distributor running 2012 SQL Server?
All responses are welcome!
Regards, Anders

Answer 1

Hi,
As you understand that a Subscriber to a merge publication can be any version less than or equal to the Publisher version. When you set up a subscription from a publisher to a subscriber using SQL Server Management Studio, you will get error
“The selected Subscriber does not satisfy the minimum version compatibility level of the selected publication.” And you can use T-SQL script to get around this error message.
I would install SQL Server 2012 Express on the clients. Here is the reasons:
1. If you upgrade the publisher to SQL Server 2014, it is still working with SQL Server 2012 on the subscriber.
2. I cannot tell whether there are other potential problems if I choose the later one besides the error message.
Reference:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143699(v=sql.120).aspx
Thanks.
Tracy Cai
TechNet Community Support