In my last post, Issues Configuring SQL Server Data Collector, I covered various problems I encountered with the Data Collector configuration. At the time, the amount of time and effort I spent, along with the overwhelming frustration, made me consider abandoning the use of Data Collector altogether. When I attempted to remove the Data Collector from the servers which successfully configured however, I found that the Data Collector could only be disabled and not removed entirely.
If you decide to disable Data Collector in SQL Server 2008 R2 or below, you will find that all of the SQL jobs which were created will remain on your server but will be disabled. Some people, myself included, do not like this type of clutter (I find that abandoned jobs often lead to confusion and wasted time in the future).
There is no official method of removing the Data Collector components in SQL Server 2008 R2 or below, but, i did find a script that worked for me which can be found here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlagent/archive/2011/07/22/remove-associated-data-collector-jobs.aspx
I do not recommend running this on anything other than a TEST system
Fortunately, starting with SQL Server 2012 and higher Microsoft has included a stored procedure, to do the cleanup:
http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/future-editions.aspx
I have confirmed that this stored procedure, sp_syscollector_cleanup_collector in msdb, exists and works in SQL Server 2014.
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