Apple Seeds ZFS Read/Write Developer Preview 1.1 for Leopard

[MacRumors]

Apple has seeded version 1.1 of ZFS for Mac OS X to Developers this week. The preview updates a previous build released on June 26, 2007.

In the release notes, Apple confirms that the original release of Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) will only offer Read-Only ZFS. As a result, no ZFS pools or filesystems can be modified or created under 10.5.0. This developer's preview enables full read/write capability, including the creation/destruction of ZFS pools and filesystems.

ZFS is described as "a fundamentally new approach to data management. We've blown away 20 years of obsolete assumptions, eliminated complexity at the source, and created a storage system that's actually a pleasure to use."

The initial version of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is rumored to be released on October 26th, 2007. It's unclear when Leopard will incorporate full Read/Write ZFS support, but it seems clear that Apple is working on adding this functionality.

Article Link

 

[DMann]

Newsworthy

This is phenomenal! ZFS is here!!! This alone makes Leopard worth the upgrade. Read/Write will be developed down the road - this marks the beginning of ZFS.

 

[72930]

Awesome! Hopefully in 10.6 it will be bootable default

 

[Cromulent]

Sounds interesting. I like the fact that Apple are still following through with this. HFS+ is definitely reaching the end of it's useful life.

 

[bananas]

I hope ZFS read/write support gets added to Leopard when it's ready. Not a moment earlier.

ZFS does sound like a cool filesystem.

 

[zwida]

Awesome! Hopefully in 10.6 it will be bootable default

I don't even want to try to get my brain around 10.6. 2009 at the earliest, right?

 

[spotlight07]

So the Sun guy was telling the truth after all.

 

[Peace]

I hope ZFS read/write support gets added to Leopard when it's ready. Not a moment earlier.

ZFS does sound like a cool filesystem.

I'm not gonna break my NDA but I will say it's fast as hell..

 

[72930]

a cool filesystem.

Not three words you often see together

 

[RichP]

I wouldnt mind Leopard coming out the end of November if we could see ZFS in the initial release. It is going to be a big improvement to data management.

 

[boxlight]

what will ZFS do for me?

Average iMac user here. What does ZFS do that I might notice -- will ZFS matter to me? Serious question.

 

[72930]

I wouldnt mind Leopard coming out the end of November if we could see ZFS in the initial release. It is going to be a big improvement to data management.

If we waited for everything cool that shoulda/coulda/woulda been here by now, it will be ages until Leopard. I personally was hoping for a truly resolution independant scaleable OS, while others wanted that faster OS switching shown on the Apple website...

 

[pounce]

yeah, i'd be all over having zfs. this could be a very good thing.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Average iMac user here. What does ZFS do that I might notice -- will ZFS matter to me? Serious question.

Not just a serious question but a very good one at that.

 

[Brendon Bauer]

Average iMac user here. What does ZFS do that I might notice -- will ZFS matter to me? Serious question.

I'm wondering the same thing. What's the difference/big deal?

I'm all for it if it's "new and cool"

 

[dashiel]

nice!

i think we'll see this used in airport disk and appleTV applications.

 

[brewno]

It's gonna be one of those "One more thing.... ZFS is implemented and it's bootable".

 

[72930]

It's gonna be one of those "One more thing.... ZFS is implemented and it's bootable".

I seriously doubt that...

 

[QuarterSwede]

10 Reasons to reformat your hard drives

 

[Brendon Bauer]

It's gonna be one of those "One more thing.... ZFS is implemented and it's bootable".

I don't think we'll be hearing any "One more thing..."s anytime soon. At least none that are significant. Apple seems to have spread it's resources thin at the moment... Just my thought. I could be wrong, and I hope I am!

 

[RRK]

So the Sun guy was telling the truth after all.

Sweet! That loose end bothered me.

 

[sblasl]

OK, I'll bite.

Just what is it that we will see in OS 10.5 as it relates to ZFS? If this is what is stated, than what do we get?

"In the release notes, Apple confirms that the original release of Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) will only offer Read-Only ZFS. As a result, no ZFS pools or filesystems can be modified or created under 10.5.0. This developer's preview enables full read/write capability, including the creation/destruction of ZFS pools and filesystems."

 

[rented mule]

I seriously doubt that...

My guess is that it's gonna find it's way into a point upgrade just like HFS+ Journaled did. Someone mentioned that the notes say that ZFS requires a GUID volume. Why would it require GUID if it's not bootable?

 

[semireg]

I'm wondering the same thing. What's the difference/big deal?

I'm all for it if it's "new and cool"

ZFS will make time machine faster and more usable by allowing snapshots at the filesystem level. You'll be able to plugin an external drive and zam, a few ZFS commands later and a full clone of your mac is made on the external drive. All of the snapshots in between backups can be time machined to.

 

[72930]

My guess is that it's gonna find it's way into a point upgrade just like HFS+ Journaled did. Someone mentioned that the notes say that ZFS requires a GUID volume. Why would it require GUID if it's not bootable?

To create bootable ZFS systems one needs to use scripts or do it manually. The ZFS Boot project recently successfully added boot support to the OpenSolaris project, and is available in recent builds of Solaris Nevada. ZFS boot is currently planned for a Solaris 10 update in late 2007.

Thanks to this from Wikipedia (Solaris 10 is out now so its a bit old) it seems to me that bootable ZFS is in its very early stages...not good enough for Leopard...