Method for monitoring the state within an industrial automation system, in which - automation devices and/or components (CDev, CPU, CP, PSy, IE1, IE2) of the industrial automation system (CIO-Sys) are each represented by nodes within a hierarchically organized diagnostic object tree, - functional dependencies between automation devices and/or components (CDev, CPU, CP, PSy, IE1, IE2) are represented by connections between nodes of the diagnostic object tree, - each node of the diagnostic object tree is respectively assigned an item of state information relating to an automation device or a component represented by the respective node, characterized in that - each node of the diagnostic object tree is respectively assigned an item of aggregated state information relating to a hierarchically subordinate subtree, wherein the respective aggregated state information is formed from state information assigned to nodes included in the respective subtree, - nodes of the diagnostic object tree which have been assigned redundant automation devices and/or components (10111, 10122, 10211, 10212) each forward, to their superordinate node for the purpose of forming the respective aggregated state information, an item of linked state information formed from the respective state information assigned to the respective automation devices or components which are redundant with respect to one another, - nodes of the diagnostic object tree which have been assigned redundant automation devices and/or components (10111, 10122, 10211, 10212) as redundancy partners are each linked to one another in a ring structure by a reference to a respective next redundancy partner. - automation devices and/or components (CDev, CPU, CP, PSy, IE1, IE2) of the industrial automation system (CIO-Sys) are each represented by nodes within a hierarchically organized diagnostic object tree, - functional dependencies between automation devices and/or components (CDev, CPU, CP, PSy, IE1, IE2) are represented by connections between nodes of the diagnostic object tree, - each node of the diagnostic object tree is respectively assigned an item of state information relating to an automation device or a component represented by the respective node, - each node of the diagnostic object tree is respectively assigned an item of aggregated state information relating to a hierarchically subordinate subtree, wherein the respective aggregated state information is formed from state information assigned to nodes included in the respective subtree, - nodes of the diagnostic object tree which have been assigned redundant automation devices and/or components (10111, 10122, 10211, 10212) each forward, to their superordinate node for the purpose of forming the respective aggregated state information, an item of linked state information formed from the respective state information assigned to the respective automation devices or components which are redundant with respect to one another, - nodes of the diagnostic object tree which have been assigned redundant automation devices and/or components (10111, 10122, 10211, 10212) as redundancy partners are each linked to one another in a ring structure by a reference to a respective next redundancy partner.