Unable to Start Data Collector Set

I was wanting to collect some performance information on a Windows 2008 R2 domain controller. One of the things you may not realize is that Windows Server includes some predefined data collector sets for common tasks and generates reports based on the data. Since I was having a performance issue on the DC, I wanted to run the Active Directory Diagnostics data collector set.

Built-in data collector sets

When I attempted to start the Active Directory Diagnostics data collector set (or any of the other predefined data collector sets), they didn't start. There was no error message or any indication of what the error might be.

Ultimately my workaround was to create a new data collector set with the same settings. Fortunately, when you create a new data collector set, one of the options is to create from a list of templates, which includes Active Directory Diagnostics. The new data collector set ran without any issues.

Selecting a template for a data collector set