You can enable/disable a Data Collector and its individual policies through the Portal. When you disable a collector or a policy, it stops the collection process (if it is running) and turns off collection. When collectors and policies are disabled you can still edit them as required. If the entire Data Collector policy has been disabled, the enable action gives permission to re-enable collection. In addition to enabling it from the Portal, you also must re-start the Data Collection service/process on the Data Collector server. When you disable an entire collector, it stops the tasks on the Data Collector server, including the watchdog, which is the process that initiates/manages the collection process.