PIM-SM multicast and HSRP/VRRP

Besides VRRP not being proprietary, there are a few minor differences between the protocols as well:

• With HSRP, each interface must have an IP address that is separate from the HSRP group address. VRRP lets you share the Master's interface IP address.
• On Cisco devices, VRRP is configured to preempt by default, whereas HSRP is not configured to preempt by default.
• On Cisco devices, HSRP sends hellos every 3 seconds and has a dead timer of 10 seconds. VRRP sends advertisements every 1 second and has a dead timer of roughly three times the advertisement interval.
• VRRP can be configured to learn the timer configuration from the Master.

I was able to resolve the issue. On the Kemp (with HA pair) you have the option of using a "Virtual MAC Address". If this box isn't checked, then the MAC of a load balancer VIP is that of the physical interface of the active Kemp unit. If this box is checked, then the MAC address of the VIP is a VRRP MAC. As you mentioned above the VRRP RFC states that the MAC being "00:00"{blah} with the last octet being the Router ID. The default Kemp HA [router] ID is 01. On my Powerconnects using Firmware 5.1.x.x I'm not using VRRP but I ran some traces and determined that the Powerconnect will drop a VRRP frame if the router ID is the same as itself. They do this EVEN if VRRP isn't configured and in that mode they default to 01. So changing the Kemp HA router ID to something like 22 (0x16) resulted in everything working.