Installing zfs on a new drive on osx 10.9 Mavericks

README.md

Download latest MacZFS build (now 74.3.2b)

Install it

partition the right device (here: a 4Tb Seagate Barracuda)

macpro:~ jhs$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.5 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Blackbook               120.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS TimeMachine             1.4 TB     disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.5 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS MacHd1                  1.5 TB     disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s3
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *256.1 GB   disk2
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Boot                    255.2 GB   disk2s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk2s3
/dev/disk3
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *4.0 TB     disk3
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk3s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         4.0 TB     disk3s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk3s3
/dev/disk4
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *4.0 TB     disk4
   1:                       0xEE                         2.2 TB     disk4s1
macpro:~ jhs$ diskutil partitiondisk /dev/disk4 GPT ZFS '%noformat%' '100%'ZFS does not appear to be a valid file system format or partition type
Use diskutil listFilesystems to view a list of supported file systems
macpro:~ jhs$ diskutil partitiondisk /dev/disk4 GPT ZFS '%noformat%' '100%'
Error creating partition map: Placing a partition map on a Core Storage logical volume is not supported (-69671)
macpro:~ jhs$ diskutil partitiondisk /dev/disk3 GPT ZFS '%noformat%' '100%'Started partitioning on disk3
Unmounting disk
Creating the partition map
Waiting for the disks to reappear
Finished partitioning on disk3
/dev/disk3
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *4.0 TB     disk3
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk3s1
   2:                        ZFS                         4.0 TB     disk3s2

Create pool

macpro:~ jhs$ zpool create z /dev/disk3s2
You must be root in order to load the ZFS kext
internal error: failed to initialize ZFS library
macpro:~ jhs$ sudo zpool create z /dev/disk3s2
Password:
macpro:~ jhs$ zpool status z
  pool: z
 state: ONLINE
 scrub: none requested
config:

    NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
    z           ONLINE       0     0     0
      disk3s2   ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors
macpro:~ jhs$ df -Hl /Volumes/z
Filesystem   Size   Used  Avail Capacity iused      ifree %iused  Mounted on
z            3.9T   991k   3.9T     1%      79 7687763895    0%   /Volumes/z

Maybe not needed? but strongly recommended in MacZFS guide:

Disable spotlight indexing of pool

macpro:~ jhs$ mdutil -i off /Volumes/z
/Volumes/z:
Error: unable to perform operation.  Try as root.  (-1)
    Indexing enabled.
macpro:~ jhs$ sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/z
/Volumes/z:
    Indexing disabled.