1. A distributed configuration utility facilitating remote configuration of process control data access servers, the distributed configuration utility comprising: a configuration editor located at a configuration console; a configuration storage for storing information including parameter values corresponding to a current configuration of a configurable process control data access server; a rules storage for storing a set of configuration rules associated with the configurable process control data access server, wherein the set of configuration rules provide a guide to processing the configuration information within the configuration storage corresponding to the current configuration of the configurable process control data access server; and a server agent, located on a computing node remote from the configuration console and containing the configurable process control data access server, the server agent including executable procedures for notifying the configuration editor of the configurable process control data access server and thereby facilitating establishing a configuration interface between the configuration editor and the configurable process control data access server.
7. The distributed configuration utility of claim 1 wherein the configuration storage comprises a standard interface that exposes methods for accessing configuration information from a variety of forms in which the configuration information is potentially stored.