US Patent 11888762 VNFM assisted fault handling in virtual network function components

An example operation may include a system comprising one or more of receiving a heartbeat failure notification in a VNFCI when the VNFCI is in standby state, sending to a Virtual Network Function Manager (VNFM), by an operational state machine, a next state request message, determining if a peer VNFCI is online when an administrative state of the peer VNFCI is online, determining an operational state of the peer VNFCI when the peer VNFCI is online, sending a first next state response message with a standby state to the VNFCI when the peer VNFCI operational state is active, sending a second next state response with an active state to the VNFCI when the peer VNFCI operational state is not active, examining, in the VNFCI, a next state attribute in a received next state response message, staying in a standby state when the next state attribute is standby, and transitioning to active state when the next state attribute is active.