Microsoft® SQL Server 2012 Unleashed

The Data Collector and the MDW

SQL Server 2012 includes a performance monitoring tool called the Data Collector. The Data Collector is designed to collect performance-related data from multiple sources from one or more SQL Servers, store it in a central data warehouse, and present the data through reports in SQL Server Management Studio. The main purpose of the Data Collector is to provide an easy way to automate the collection of critical performance data. The Data Collector gathers information from Windows performance counters, snapshots of data grabbed from dynamic management objects, and details on disk utilization.

Data collection can be configured to run continuously or on a user-defined schedule. You can adjust the scope of data collection ...