satadru wrote:There's always FreeNAS for continued ZFS support, and btrfs seems to be rapidly coalescing into a usable product if I switch to Linux, and it does also have data checksumming to notice bitrot.
You could continue using OS X for your primary machine, but put your files on a Linux server using Btrfs (or alternatively ZFS on Linux
http://zfsonlinux.org). Netatalk on Linux works really well for sharing files to Macs over AFP with support for extended attributes, etc. The development branch of the git version of Netatalk even supports server-side Spotlight search! If you only want to use Macs, the Linux server could simply be a virtual machine on another Mac using USB 3.0 passthrough. In fact you could just have the VM on your primary Mac depending on whether battery life is an issue.
Netatalk also works great on Oracle Solaris 11 (dedup and encryption) and Open Indiana. You'd probably want to run these on bare metal because USB 3.0 passthrough is less likely to work in a virtual machine. Directly attached SATA drives would be the way to go. There are several online guides to building your own Solaris server. Or you could just buy one of the 3rd party (Dell, HP, whatever) on Oracle's Hardware Compatibility List for Oracle Solaris 11.
http://www.oracle.com/webfolder/technet ... index.htmlUnfortunately, if you keep your files on a server, your data transfer rate to your primary machine will be capped at gigabit Ethernet speeds, unless you invest in 10GbE equipment which is expensive but super cool.
ZEVO lets you surpass gigabit Ethernet speed AND have checksumming AND use a Mac AND not have to buy 10GbE equipment AND not have to spend a significant part of your life dealing with Linux headaches.
You might also want to look into Microsoft's ReFS (yeah, I know...hush), which is the brand new filesystem for Windows Server 2012. There will certainly be Mac drivers for it at some point in the next few years once it makes the hop over to Windows 9 (or whatever). ReFS supports checksumming, mirroring, and parity. And you have a $290 billion company actively investing in it. A significant portion of the code was taken from NTFS and Microsoft is being conservative adding few bells and whistles to it for the time being, so I wouldn't worry about reliability due to its newness.
And of course Apple could surprise all of us and come out with their own modern filesystem sometime soon. *not holding breath*