Abstract: The present disclosure resides in a method for monitoring an automated plant, which has a fieldbus access unit connected with a first communication network, wherein the first communication network has a plurality of field devices and network nodes, wherein a communication driver, which runs in a first frame application, which is implemented in a client computer connected with the fieldbus access unit via a second communication network, queries structure data of network nodes and field devices present in the first communication network, wherein the structure data are generated by the fieldbus access unit in the context of the query by scanning the address space of the network level and determining the network nodes and field devices present in the address space. The present disclosure further resides in a fieldbus access unit and an arrangement, comprising a client computer and a fieldbus access unit.

Abstract: A device access means for accessing fieldbus components of a fieldbus system is described. The device access means is installed in a host or host environment and includes a frame application as well as, bound into the frame application, at least one driver, which is designed to access at least one fieldbus component. Moreover, the device access means includes a monitoring unit, which is designed to register information concerning resources reserved by drivers and provided by the operating system of the host or host environment, and, upon detecting an abnormal temporal increase of resources reserved by drivers, to initiate at least one predetermined countermeasure.

Abstract: A method for activating or deactivating at least one hardware- and/or software functionality of an automation component having an input unit and an output unit includes: generating an identification information of the automation component; providing the identification information as a first machine interpretable code on the output unit; registering the provided first code using a service device via a reaction free, unidirectional data channel; transmitting the identification information from the service device to a server; generating a first license information using the server; transmitting the first license information as an alphanumeric data sequence of predetermined character length from the server to the service device; inputting the output first license information into the automation component using the input unit; checking the plausibility of the first license information using the automation component; activating or deactivating the hardware- and/or software functionality upon successful checking of

Abstract: The present disclosure resides in a method for monitoring an automated plant, which has a fieldbus access unit connected with a first communication network, wherein the first communication network has a plurality of field devices and network nodes, wherein a communication driver, which runs in a first frame application, which is implemented in a client computer connected with the fieldbus access unit via a second communication network, queries structure data of network nodes and field devices present in the first communication network, wherein the structure data are generated by the fieldbus access unit in the context of the query by scanning the address space of the network level and determining the network nodes and field devices present in the address space. The present disclosure further resides in a fieldbus access unit and an arrangement, comprising a client computer and a fieldbus access unit.