Partner mirroring is provided with tray loss protection in an N node storage cluster architecture. A master proxy receives and records broadcasts of nodes in a cluster and selects mirror partners in a round robin fashion, so that even numbered nodes are mirrored with other even numbered nodes and odd numbered nodes are mirrored with other odd numbered nodes. In an N node storage cluster architecture which includes a cluster of dual controllers, tray loss protection is provided using such an odd numbered and even numbered mirror pairing process.