MySQL 5.7 Reference Manual
MySQL 5.7 Release Notes
MySQL supports replication from one release series to the next higher release series. For example, you can replicate from a source running MySQL 5.6 to a replica running MySQL 5.7, from a source running MySQL 5.7 to a replica running MySQL 8.0, and so on. However, you may encounter difficulties when replicating from an older source to a newer replica if the source uses statements or relies on behavior no longer supported in the version of MySQL used on the replica. For example, foreign key names longer than 64 characters are no longer supported from MySQL 8.0.
The use of more than two MySQL Server versions is not supported in replication setups involving multiple sources, regardless of the number of source or replica MySQL servers. This restriction applies not only to release series, but to version numbers within the same release series as well. For example, if you are using a chained or circular replication setup, you cannot use MySQL 5.7.22, MySQL 5.7.23, and MySQL 5.7.24 concurrently, although you could use any two of these releases together.
Important
It is strongly recommended to use the most recent release available within a given MySQL release series because replication (and other) capabilities are continually being improved. It is also recommended to upgrade sources and replicas that use early releases of a release series of MySQL to GA (production) releases when the latter become available for that release series.
Replication from newer sources to older replicas may be possible, but is generally not supported. This is due to a number of factors:
Binary log format changes. The binary log format can change between major releases. While we attempt to maintain backward compatibility, this is not always possible.
This also has significant implications for upgrading replication servers; see Section 4.3, “Upgrading a Replication Topology”, for more information.
For more information about row-based replication, see Section 5.1, “Replication Formats”.
SQL incompatibilities. You cannot replicate from a newer source to an older replica using statement-based replication if the statements to be replicated use SQL features available on the source but not on the replica.
However, if both the source and the replica support row-based replication, and there are no data definition statements to be replicated that depend on SQL features found on the source but not on the replica, you can use row-based replication to replicate the effects of data modification statements even if the DDL run on the source is not supported on the replica.
For more information on potential replication issues, see Section 4.1, “Replication Features and Issues”.