Step 1: Enable System Extensions
Turn off your computer and enter the boot menu by pressing and holding the power button. Click "options" and log in in recovery mode. Then, at the top of the screen select "Utilities > Startup Security Utility". Change the security policy to "Reduced Security" and make sure that the "Allow user management of kernel extensions from identified developers" box is checked.
Then, restart your computer to exit recovery mode.
Step 2: Install ZFS
Download the latest version from: https://openzfsonosx.org/wiki/Downloads
Open the dmg file and run the .pkg for your system version. Follow the prompts to enable the signed ZFS system extension in system settings and restart your computer.
ZFS pools should now show up in Finder under "Locations" in the side panel.
Additionally, you may wish to install ZetaWatch. This is not necessary to access ZFS pools, but makes monitoring and managing pools much more user friendly by adding a taskbar widget with a GUI for several common ZFS terminal commands. You can find the latest release here:https://github.com/cbreak-black/ZetaWatch/releases
Step 3 (optional): Create Pool
If you're following this guide in order to access a storage pool someone else has created, this step is unnecessary. However, if you would like to create a new pool, you can do so as follows:
First, open a terminal window and run this command to show all available hard drives:
- Code: Select all
diskutil list
Creating a new ZFS pool will DELETE ALL CONTENTS of the disks being used, so make sure you have the correct disks identified, and back up any files on these disks you wish to save.
Once you've identified the proper disks, you can create a new pool as follows:
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sudo zpool create -f -o ashift=12 \
-O casesensitivity=insensitive \
-O normalization=formD \
POOL_NAME VDEV_TYPE diskX diskY diskZ
POOL_NAME should be replaced with the name you want to give your new pool. There are a few restrictions on valid names, but generally any string starting with a letter should be acceptable.
VDEV_TYPE should be replaced with the vdev configuration you wish to set up. For example, using "raidz1" as your vdev type will set 1 disk as parity (equivalent to RAID5), "raidz2" uses 2 parity disks (equivalent to RAID6), and "mirror" will create an exact copy of the data across all disks provided (equivalent to RAID1). For more detail on vdev types, please see the ZFS documentation.
diskX diskY diskZ should be replaced with the names of the disks you wish to use for this storage pool, as displayed by the diskutil list command you ran earlier. You can use any number of disks, just make sure your vdev type selected will provide sufficient data redundancy for the number of disks!