diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/openmpi/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/openmpi/package.py
index 163990bf15cd0b127b03717aecf6df2417025e73..0e3185db258e98fc5a4a31c142c6af49a5b26a83 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/openmpi/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/openmpi/package.py
@@ -65,6 +65,8 @@ class Openmpi(Package):
 
     variant('sqlite3', default=False, description='Build sqlite3 support')
 
+    variant('vt', default=True, description='Build support for contributed package vt')
+
     # TODO : support for CUDA is missing
 
     provides('mpi@:2.2', when='@1.6.5')
@@ -116,7 +118,8 @@ def install(self, spec, prefix):
             # Other options
             '--enable-mpi-thread-multiple' if '+thread_multiple' in spec else '--disable-mpi-thread-multiple',
             '--with-pmi' if '+pmi' in spec else '--without-pmi',
-            '--with-sqlite3' if '+sqlite3' in spec else '--without-sqlite3'
+            '--with-sqlite3' if '+sqlite3' in spec else '--without-sqlite3',
+            '--enable-vt' if '+vt' in spec else '--disable-vt'
         ])
 
         # TODO: use variants for this, e.g. +lanl, +llnl, etc.