The present disclosure is directed to a peer node discovery process whereby a network management node can discover peers of inaccessible nodes that have lost connectivity to the network management node over the control plane and receive health report of the inaccessible nodes via the discovered peers. In one example, a method includes detecting a loss of connectivity to a network node; based on a type of the network node, performing one of a first process or a second process to obtain a health report of the network node, the first process and the second process including identification of at least one corresponding peer node from which the health report of the network node is to be received; and analyzing the health report to determine root cause of the loss of connectivity.