Auto discovery of embedded historians in network

A method of locating embedded historians within an industrial plant comprising:

• collecting data using a plurality of embedded historians that are distributed as part of industrial units of the industrial plant, the collecting data comprising collecting historian data across various levels of the industrial plant;
• identifying a data type of data to be acquired;
• detecting at least one embedded historian that collects data of the identified data type using a locator hardware component that employs metadata to facilitate a trail to the embedded historian;
• defining a common organizational data model for the industrial plant;
• utilizing an artificial intelligence component to facilitate identification of data collected by the embedded historian;
• acquiring the data from the embedded historian;
• wherein if one or more of the levels become overloaded with the collection data, historian functionality is shifted upwards or downwards between the levels.

An industrial automation system, comprising:

• a plurality of embedded historians that are distributed as part of a networked industrial automation system to collect data associated with the industrial automation system and the embedded historians are configured to self-identify upon the occurrence of a predetermined event, wherein a subset of the embedded historians are plugged into a rack, at least one controller plugged into the rack, the rack having a backplane that communicatively couples the subset of the embedded historians with the at least one controller;
• and
• a locator component that detects embedded historians by communicating to the subset of embedded controllers through the controller and employing a trail of metadata based at least on an identified data type of data to be collected and assigns type of historian data for an industrial plant to be collected, wherein the embedded historians are distributed as part of industrial units of an industrial plant and collect data across various levels of the industrial plant, and wherein historian functionality is shifted upwards or downwards between the levels based upon at least one of:
• overloading at one or more levels, or a network message from another level.