Is it safe to leave System Performance Data Collector Set running
In my experience running data collector sets is safe, the main thing to keep an eye on is how much data you are generating. It really just depends on what you are looking for, but there are three ways to control how much data is collected:
- The Number of counters you monitor
- How long you let the collector run for
- The "Sample Interval" the properties for the data collector (i.e. if you collect every 30 seconds, that is only 2 observations per minute.)
If you need a high resolution view of performance, you would be better off scheduling it every so often with a high sample interval. If you only need an aggregate overview of the day, you might want to go with something like one sample every few minutes. You can also set the maximum size of the data collected, but I would view that more as a safety net.
They can also be sent to SQL if you want to take off some of the data writing load. I believe choosing something like the binary format would take less space than something like csv.