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OpenZFS free download for Mac

OpenZFS

Version 2.0.1

Advanced file/volume system supporting very large data stores.

4.5
Based on 4 user ratesRead reviews & comments
Free
Absolutely Free

OpenZFS overview

OpenZFS is an open-source storage platform. It includes the functionality of both traditional file systems and volume manager. It has many advanced features including:

  • Protection against data corruption. Integrity checking for both data and metadata.
  • Continuous integrity verification and automatic "self-healing" repair
  • Data redundancy with mirroring, RAID-Z1/2/3 [and DRAID]
  • Support for high storage capacities - up to 256 trillion yobibytes (2^128 bytes)
  • Space-saving with transparent compression using LZ4, GZIP or ZSTD
  • Hardware-accelerated native encryption
  • Efficient storage with snapshots and copy-on-write clones
  • Efficient local or remote replication - send only changed blocks with ZFS send and receive

Note: While the software is classified as free, it is actually donationware. Please consider making a donation to help support development.

What’s new in version 2.0.1

Updated on Jun 22 2021

Version 2.0.1:
  • New port
  • zfs send / zfs recv rewritten to use pipes.
  • Mimic changes (use "com.apple.mimic=hfs" instead of "on/off".)
  • Automatic mounting of snapshots
  • zstd compression
  • User/group object quotas
  • Device_rebuild
  • Draid vdev-type

Information

License

Free

Size

17.6 MB

Developer’s website

https://openzfsonosx.org/

Downloads

3501

App requirements

  • Intel 64
  • OS X 10.9 or later
  • Separate versions are available for different macOS
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0.0

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  • User Ratings

Aargl
Aargl
May 6 2022
2.0.1
3.0
May 6 2022
3.0
Version: 2.0.1
v2.1.0 has been out since last august and should work ok in recent MacOSes (I have only tested 10.11 and 10.14 last year, but stayed with v1.9.4 as compatibility with 10.9 has never been fixed — and as I wrote in my precedent review, there's little interest for using it over APFS if you don't need compatibility with some other OS). I keep using it for my monthly backup though, mainly out of habits, but I clearly could devise another strategy without ZFS...
Aargl
Aargl
Jun 22 2021
1.5.2
3.0
Jun 22 2021
3.0
Version: 1.5.2
Current version is 2.0.1. Time for another small review. After 6+ years using OpenZFS on OS X, I've just finished restructuring my drives, only keeping ZFS for long time backups on a single zpool — i.e. the way it's meant to be, not slices scattered on one or more drives, even if it's possible and I've used it that way until now. When I read my old reviews here, it's clear that it has become a lot slower and is not suited for daily personal computer use (putting your /Users on a zpool and things like that). Sure enough, ZFS is still a great and secure filesystem and a reliable choice if you value your data more than speed. There are issues, though, even if they are perhaps not directly attributable to OpenZFS, but I often had crashes where zfs kexts are in the backtrace, in recent versions at least. While restructuring my drives, I also had lightning KP where the computer reboots abruptly when copying huge folders or sparsebundles using the Finder, and no trace of anything in the Console! :-o Using apps like Carbon Copy Cloner or Terminal (with the ditto command) works perfectly, so it's very likely that Finder is the culprit here, as it has proved many times not being the most reliable piece of software in history... :-D The point with OpenZFS on OS X is that there's only one very busy dev working on it, so development is understandably going at a crawl and some issues are not fixed, especially if they happen on old versions of MacOS. To end on a positive note, I still recommend it for reliable backups but better forget any kind of acrobatics. ;-)
Aargl
Aargl
Nov 17 2018
1.5.2
3.0
Nov 17 2018
3.0
Version: 1.5.2
Current version is 1.8.2. Time for a small review. After nearly 4 years using OpenZFS, my early enthusiasm has waned... All in all, knowing how it has evolved, I kind of regret a bit my installing it. Not that ZFS has become a bad filesystem, but the development of the Mac port is really slow in fixing the issues, the devs don't have much time to dedicate to that project and you must make enough trials before updating to a new version. I had to skip a few versions last year before they fixed an important issue I had (took one and a half year before I can update with peace of mind...) — I don't even dare posting issues on their forum any more, as one dev has been pretty rude to me a few years ago, with no reason (see one of my posts below) and I generally get no answer. Luckily, the issues have always been non-destructive, and once you've got a version that works it's ok. I want to believe that if you dedicate a full disk to one big ZFS pool, you'll meet zero issue. But having a few pools scattered amongst HFS+ partitions like me is probably showing issues that wouldn't arise otherwise — and this is an issue for me, as ZFS is still not bootable, AFAIK. Well, I'm probably not the target for ZFS, after all, even though I can't update to MacOS 10.13 and enjoy APFS... So, if you absolutely need ZFS or are of the geek kind (like me ;-) ), go for it, but now that APFS is here, there's no need for ZFS for the average user.
Aargl
Aargl
Feb 11 2017
1.5.2
3.0
Feb 11 2017
3.0
Version: 1.5.2
v1.6.1 is out and still compatible from 10.8 to 10.12.
(I've tested it on 10.9 and all seems ok)
persecutor
persecutor
Feb 1 2017
1.5.2
5.0
Feb 1 2017
5.0
Version: 1.5.2
Great job guys, keep it up!
Aargl
Aargl
Jan 31 2017
1.5.2
3.0
Jan 31 2017
3.0
Version: 1.5.2
v1.5.2 have been out a long time ago and is perfectly stable; there's actually a "1.6.0 Sierra RC1" available, but as its name implies, it might only run under Sierra... wait and see. You can read in their forum that sooner or later (will it be 1.6?) OpenZFS will be bootable, which should be really interesting. ;-)
Aargl
Aargl
Oct 23 2015
1.3.1
3.0
Oct 23 2015
3.0
Version: 1.3.1
Current version is 1.4.5.
Aargl
Aargl
Oct 23 2015
1.3.1
3.0
Oct 23 2015
3.0
Version: 1.3.1
A quick note after recent changes in their support policy: I had a mail from one of the devs saying "We have reached a point of overload in terms of supporting people with issues such as yours in the forums, and they have reached a point of disarray, bordering on disinformation. i.e. There are people out there who believe the software cannot be installed because you, and I mean specifically you cannot do so due to whatever circumstances you find yourself in."
Then "You have to realize that there are only 3 of us running this project, it costs you nothing to use the software, so we feel quite justified in dictating in what form we will attempt to deliver support."

So, I suppose it means that if you dive into ZFS, you have to be tech savvy enough to be sure that your issues are general issues... and not pollute the forums. ;-)
Good will is not enough, it seems.
Even if I understand the overflow they must face, that behavior put off my enthusiasm (to say the least...), especially because earlier this year I faced "real" issues that have been fixed thanks to the time I've spent trying fixes and communicating with the team — so I don't recognize myself in the portrait of "stupid user" thrown at me. ;-)

To conclude in a positive way, I must say that after ten months or so on ZFS, I had no issue at all regarding data security: mine were compatibility issues with specific softwares (indeed AVID ProTools and their interface drivers). Fixed.
Once it's all set up, you can just use ZFS partitions as any other (you can even manage them with Carbon Copy Cloner — not Superduper!).
Nevertheless, there are things to know before jumping in: it still doesn't support OSX permissions. I still have one issue, exclusively with ProTools wiping labels off its own sessions files (a really small issue, indeed, considering that all the other softwares I've tried aren't doing so).
Aargl
Aargl
Feb 5 2015
1.3.1
3.0
Feb 5 2015
3.0
Version: 1.3.1
It doesn't take long to "feel" the superiority of ZFS over HFS: a few speed tests on copying huge files reveal faster writing and, if you activate compression, a space gain (a 37 Gb HFS became 35.4 Gb ZFS!) — it's actually even faster with compression on! Of course, the scope of ZFS is rather on data security, but I can only rely on what I've read, since it's just been 2 weeks I'm testing it (indeed because I discovered hundreds of bad blocks on an HFS drive... ;-) ). The principles behind ZFS are pretty reassuring: "copy-on-write", self-repairing mirrors... And the OpenZFS dev team is really responsive! I only give 4.5 stars, just because it's not fully integrated in OSX (no GUI, DiskUtility.app and other utilities don't deal with it directly and you will have to use Terminal for setting up and managing "pools"). Yet, it's very easy to create simple pools, and once you understand the concepts of it, you easily create a ZFS partition on your HFS drive without any issue. If you care about your data, ZFS is mandatory.
Macott
Macott
Aug 4 2014
1.3.0
5.0
Aug 4 2014
5.0
Version: 1.3.0
I have been running this since the day Mavericks came out on a production system (before that on a virtual machine for test purposes). At this point I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to benefit from the advantages of running zfs. It is rock solid, and has all the niceties that one would expect (installer, disks automatically mount). It provides "zvols", which means you can have a zfs block device with all the zfs fun stuff (snapshots, auto healing, ...), and format it as HFS+. I'm using that to have TimeMachine backup to zfs.
Strob
Strob
Aug 2 2014
1.3.0
0.0
Aug 2 2014
0.0
Version: 1.3.0
The developer's website states "It's compatible with OS X 10.6 through OS X 10.10 (Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, and Yosemite). " Why is this marked here as needing OS X 10.8 and above?
Hoondi
Hoondi
Aug 2 2014
1.3.0
0.0
Aug 2 2014
0.0
Version: 1.3.0
I would like to share my thoughts with others and welcome feedback. I have used ZFS before it appeard on OSX and used it on OSX since 32bit PPC days... The first thing to keep in mind, is that there's been several attempts to kickstart this filesystem on OSX and even Apple intended to use it before Oracle bought out Sun Microsystems. These attempts are not a reflection of ZFS's features itself, but more so an issue of execution on the Mac OS X platform. Articles exist on the web that suggest once you starting reading around 12TB of data on spindles, you're statistically guaranteed to have encrounted a read error. (http://www.zdnet.com/blog/storage/why-raid-5-stops-working-in-2009/162). This is also known as silent data corruption, bit creep etc etc. The merit of the article or how accurate the "12TB" value actually is, isn't really something that should be discussed here, but the message is clear – the larger hard-disks become, the more likelihood read errors will occur when you read/copy the data. Think about his for a second: How often do you replace your storage? let's conservatively say every 5-7 years. (some only do it if a disk fails) And how long do you propose to live? let's say the "y" generation is going to reach 80+ no probs. So, if you transfer your data every 5-7 years, that's 12 occasions (minimum) of migrating/copying your data throughout your life. How confident are you that all your data will still be readable when you want to hand down photos of loved ones or movies of your children? If you're not storing your data that can be guaranteed consistent-on-disk by using block checksums, you may want to rethink a few things. Also, what I'm talking about here has nothing to do with backup strategies – that's another topic for discussion another time, but realise that if you cannot guarantee consistency-on-disk, all you're doing is potentially moving a hidden problem to your backup strategy. This all sounds fairly drastic and harsh, and this issue is essentially masked by current disk sizes, but with 6TB drives available, it's something you might want to carefully consider for the future. Being able to use checksums to verify your data is just one of the many features of ZFS, there are many more that no other filesystem can offer natively on OS X and so it's for this alone that I rate ZFS so highly. HFS is should've been retired years ago, (http://arstechnica.com/apple/2011/07/mac-os-x-10-7/12/) Even Apple know this by there decision to adopt ZFS back when Mac OS X 10.5 was being developed. How do you feel about your data sitting on HFS now? Hat's off to the guys developing ZFS on OSX, you guys rock! Regards, R.
Aargl
Aargl
Nov 17 2018
3.0
Nov 17 2018
3.0
Version: null
persecutor
persecutor
Feb 1 2017
5.0
Feb 1 2017
5.0
Version: null
Monkeyjunkey
Monkeyjunkey
Dec 22 2014
5.0
Dec 22 2014
5.0
Version: null
Macott
Macott
Aug 4 2014
5.0
Aug 4 2014
5.0
Version: null
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