MacOS – use a ZFS ZEVO-managed USB hard disk for Time Machine backups and does it offer de-deduplication

macostime-machinezfs

ZEVO support for Time Machine

Can I use a ZEVO-managed USB hard disk for Time Machine backups?

ZFS dedup

Will ZEVO and Time Machine give me de-duplication (which is sorely missing from Time Machine on HFS+, especially if you backup multiple machines to the same disk)?

Best Answer

In the Time Machine pane of System Preferences, add any ZFS dataset.

For the first backup to that dataset, the operating system will:

  1. create a sparse bundle disk image (….sparsebundle) at the root of that dataset
  2. attach the image, after which you'll see a volume named Time Machine Backups.

For each subsequent backup to that dataset, the OS will:

  1. attach the image, after which you'll see the Time Machine Backups volume.

Time Machine routines with ZFS are similar or identical to the routines that apply when backing up to a device – such as an Apple Time Capsule – that uses AFP.

How can one recover from TM after new/reinstallation? New OS installation knows nothing about ZFS to TM image is unreachable.

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