SQL Server introduced the concept of data collector - you can obtain and save data that is gathered from several sources about SQL Server health. The data collector provides data collection containers that you can use to determine the scope and frequency of data collection on a SQL Server system. The data collector provides predefined collector types that you can use for data collection.

The out-of-box collector types are...

• Generic T-SQL Query Collector Type
• Generic SQL Trace Collector Type
• Performance Counters Collector Type
• Query Activity Collector Type