ZFS is a sophisticated new 128-bit file system created by Sun Microsystems for the Solaris OS

Feb 10, 2009 09:41 GMT  ·  By

Another Snow Leopard tidbit offered by people currently testing the beta software says that Apple's expanded support for ZFS will make its debut on the Server side of Mac OS X 10.6. Less technical users will not be able to make practical use of the file system at first, but Apple is looking into every possibility to make it happen very soon.

ZFS is a file system designed by Sun Microsystems for the Solaris Operating System. ZFS includes support for high storage capacities, integration of the concepts of filesystem and volume management, RAID-Z and native NFSv4 ACLs, snapshots and copy-on-write clones, even continuous integrity checking and automatic repair. Implemented as open-source software, ZFS is licensed under the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL).

AppleInsider is again the source disclosing the latest findings in Apple's new OS X version. The site cites testers as saying that Snow Leopard Server will not only include the latest build of ZFS, currently found in Mac OS X Leopard, “but will also expose ZFS features within the graphical Disk Utility, making it easier to set up ZFS storage pools and file systems without resorting to command line utilities.” Developers told the site that the Finder is also in line to become ZFS-wise, as is any application “that makes assumptions about the underlying file system.”

Even though the Finder and Disk Utility have always been identical on the Client and Server sides of Mac OS X, Apple may include full ZFS support only with Snow Leopard Server at first, the same people say. The reason? “Server users have a greater practical need for the features related to ZFS, and also have the support resources to handle working with the new system.”

It is also believed Snow Leopard Server will be the only Mac OS X to get full ZFS support initially with Apple only mentioning ZFS features in relation to OS X 10.6 Server in "business critical server deployments," AppleInsider stresses. Nevertheless, experimenting with ZFS will likely be possible on the desktop side as well, the source suggests.