external hdd

[Shane Ambler]

On 30/03/2013 09:43, Chuck Swiger wrote:
> Hi--
>
> On Mar 29, 2013, at 3:52 PM, Damien Fleuriot wrote:
>> On 29 March 2013 18:06, Chuck Swiger <cswiger at mac.com> wrote:
>>> Time Machine is only supported on top of journaled HFS+; I'm not
>>> sure how fusefs-hfs is doing on FreeBSD, though.  Or you could
>>> setup multiple partitions and have an exFAT partition for data
>>> interchange between other OSes.
>>
>> Now, unless I got things wrong, I believe you're mistaken.
>
> The key word above which folks might not be paying enough attention
> towards-- particularly in the context of a backup solution-- is
> "supported".
>
>> I, for instance, have a Time Machine server running on top of
>> 10.0-CURRENT with ZFS.
>> http://www.area536.com/projects/ironclad-time-machine-backups-on-freebsd/
>
>>
> Indeed.  As one might note on that page:
>
> defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1
>                                                   ^^^^^^^^^^^

The real point to notice is that the mentioned zfs storage is accessed
over the network not over a local usb/sata cable. The freebsd server
reads/writes to zfs the remote mac only talks afp over tcp seeing it as
another network fileserver.

While 10.5 included a zfs read-only kext apple removed it in 10.6 or 10.7.

There is an oss version of zfs started that appears to have been revived 
- maczfs.com.
There is also a commercial package for osx zfs - zevo.
I'm not vouching for either of these just mentioning that they exist.