Hi,
DFS Replication does not require the servers to have the same version as other DFS servers.
Also note that DFS Namespace is a different role than DFS Replication, they are separate roles that are not dependent of each other.
DFS Replication
To set up DFS Replication you can follow the guide below:
How to Configure DFS Replication on Windows Server 2016?
DFS Namespace
To set up a DFS Namespace, you can follow the guide below:
Create a DFS namespace
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Best regards,
Leon