ZEVO ZFS Versus OSX HFS Journaled

[silverjam]

I have started using ZFS formatting on an external drive with Zevo Silver (only what is available so far). I am looking to set up a Mirror on two drives once Gold is released.

As I am not a techy so can someone give me the "Plain English" version of why ZFS is better that HFS OSX Journaled.

When I say better I mean on an overall level (integration with OSX and apps etc) and file integrity level. I am a little worried I am using the equivalent of "BetaMax" versus VHS at the moment (sorry if you're not born before the eighties as you won't understand that) in that I understand it is better/superior but is it the practical way to go based on the fact that OSX hasn't chosen that path yet? Apple is known for taking their own path as we all know.

Also is there any chance ZFS is faster?

I am worried that data integrity will be a side issue if Zevo is the only controller of the file system and it becomes obsolete. Will I be left with a whole bunch of high quality BetaMax tapes with no machine to play them on?

SilverJam

 

[silverjam]

In facilitating my own post... the following link has a good summary... albeit it is a little old.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2011/03/how-zfs-is-slowly-making-its-way-to-mac-os-x/

 

[gnomeisland]

When I say better I mean on an overall level (integration with OSX and apps etc) and file integrity level. I am a little worried I am using the equivalent of "BetaMax" versus VHS at the moment (sorry if you're not born before the eighties as you won't understand that) in that I understand it is better/superior but is it the practical way to go based on the fact that OSX hasn't chosen that path yet? Apple is known for taking their own path as we all know.

It is niche but not obsolete. Apple dropped ZFS development because Oral bought SUN and started chasing down rivals who used Sun's IP in open source projects. Basically, Apple couldn't guarantee that developing/committing to ZFS wouldn't result in a major lawsuit. Personally I'm tired a data corruption issues in HFS+. I don't think ZFS is "faster" on its own although depending how it is implemented it can utilize system resources better than HFS+.

 

[nuckinfutz]

I suspect we'll get a new filesystem for OS X within two revisions that delivers modern features that will work well across OS X and iOS.

anti-Data Corruption
Deduplication
Versioning/Snapshots
COW
Metadata

and more features will likely be included.

 

[smuckola]

painted into a corner, but MacZFS.org exists

Silverjam, you're absolutely right to be concerned about using a proprietary implementation of even one of the world's most open standard and portable free software storage platforms. That's just an endemic problem of free vs. nonfree, with any data format ever made. And we hope that GreenBytes fulfills Ten's Complement's longstanding promises to release the ZEVO source code.

However, there has always been a completely free implementation of ZFS for Mac OS at http://maczfs.org/ . Apple's software never stopped; only their involvement did. It supports everything that most ZFS users need. And even if you created a zpool on another implementation of ZFS, it's compatible with MacZFS if it was created with zpool v8 and zfs v2.

As long as you're hosting that ZEVO-made zpool on Mac OS, which was created with ZEVO's default of zpool version 28, you're absolutely dependent upon the pleasure of ZEVO's owner staying in business and ever updating it. One hopes that they release the full source code, as that's the only way out of that particular scenario.

And finally, you can always bail those drives out of Mac OS and into another OS to read them. FreeBSD and Solaris/Illumos can read ZEVO's default-created zpools.

 

[DisMyMac]

However, there has always been a completely free implementation of ZFS for Mac OS at http://maczfs.org/ . Apple's software never stopped; only their involvement did. It supports everything that most ZFS users need. And even if you created a zpool on another implementation of ZFS, it's compatible with MacZFS if it was created with zpool v8 and zfs v2.

Too bad maczfs cautions against USB drives. Not many choices left.