Adaptive profiling for performance analysis of a computer system controls one or more agents to monitor a plurality of events occurring in a target computer system based on an adaptive logic. Collected data may be filtered and analyzed to determine one or more contributor events that attribute to performance of the target computer system. One or more patterns are observed or detected in said collected data, behavior of said one or more agents are adjusted based on said detected one or more patterns. The adaptive logic may be further reconfigured based on said detected one or more patterns.