Virtual Link Trunking or
VLT is a
proprietary aggregation protocol developed by
Force10 (now
Dell Networking) and available in their datacenter-class or enterprise-class
network switches. VLT is implemented in the latest firmware releases of legacy (
FTOS) OS9 for their high-end switches like the S-, Z- and E-series 10/25,40 and 100 Gbit/s datacenter switches. VLT is also implemented on the current OS10 Smart Fabric OS. Although VLT is a proprietary protocol from
Dell Networking (formerly Force10) other vendors offer similar features to allow users to set up an aggregated link towards two (logical) different switches, where a standard aggregated link can only terminate on a single logical switch (thus either a single physical switch or on different members in a stacked switch setup) like Cisco vpc or MLAG. The latest Dell supported OS for their ONIE based PowerSwitch devices,
SONiC, also offers a similar protocol as MLAG VLT is a layer-2
link aggregation protocol between end-devices (servers) connected to (different) access-switches, offering these servers a redundant, load-balancing connection to the core-network in a loop-free environment, eliminating the requirement for the use of
Spanning Tree Protocol. ==3Com==