Patent ID: 8429281

Claim:
A method for operating an industrial automation system comprising a plurality of networked computer units, comprising: providing functions of the industrial automation system by services of the plurality of networked computer units; configuring and activating the services using system configuration data and service configuration data, the system configuration data comprising information for assigning services to service providing computer units of said plural computer units and for assigning dependencies between assigned services; accepting and checking the system configuration data by a first service of a control and monitoring unit of the automation system and forwarding the system configuration data to target computer units of the plural computer units; checking the system configuration data by second services provided by the target computer units and using the system configuration data to provide necessary resources for activating local services; transmitting the service configuration data to the target computer units following successful system configuration; and activating a local service by one of the target computer units assigned to said local service using the service configuration data; wherein the service configuration data are initially loaded in a preparation phase to activate a local service and the local service is provided in a final phase using the service configuration data loaded in the preparation phase, and wherein if at least one of the preparation phase and the final phase fails, the local service is provided in a reset phase using service configuration data assigned to a last fault-free status.