<p>All kubernetes instruction ask to work with minikube that gives you a single kubernetes host. What options are available to work with true multinode clusters. For example I have VM servers available to me. What tools I need to employ to spin up a few VMWare fusion machines on my Mac and create a Kubernetes cluster. Can I start a few machines in VirtualBox and use them as a Kubernetes Cluster. </p>

<p>I think that we need to clear up some definitions here.</p>

<p>First, what is Kubernetes:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Kubernetes is a portable, extensible open-source platform for managing
  containerized workloads and services, that facilitates both
  declarative configuration and automation.</p>
  
  <p>Kubernetes has a number of features. It can be thought of as: a
  container platform
  -   a microservices platform
  -   a portable cloud platform and a lot more.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>You can read more about what is and what is not Kubernetes <a href="https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/overview/what-is-kubernetes/" rel="noreferrer">here.</a></p>

<p>Second, what is a minikube? Minikube is an all-in-one install of Kubernetes, as it takes all the <a href="https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/overview/components/" rel="noreferrer">components</a> of Kubernetes (Master Components, Node Components, potential Add-ons) and runs them in a single virtual machine.
You can install Kubernetes in many different ways as listed in this <a href="https://kubernetes.io/docs/setup/" rel="noreferrer">documentation section</a>, and if there is no minikube as you have asked, there still are many different ways to install minikube, for example, kubeadm as <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/users/1416534/murli">Murli</a> said, <a href="https://github.com/kubernetes-incubator/kubespray" rel="noreferrer">kubespray</a>, <a href="https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/" rel="noreferrer">Google Kubernetes Engine</a>, <a href="https://github.com/kubernetes/kops" rel="noreferrer">kops</a>, <a href="https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/kubernetes-service/" rel="noreferrer">Azure Kubernetes Service</a>, etc. </p>

<p>I highly recommend you to try <a href="https://github.com/kelseyhightower" rel="noreferrer">kelseyhightower</a>/<a href="https://github.com/kelseyhightower/kubernetes-the-hard-way" rel="noreferrer">kubernetes-the-hard-way</a> as it will walk you through setting up the cluster manually which will give you a good understanding on how things work inside Kubernetes - you can do that in <a href="https://cloud.google.com/" rel="noreferrer">Google Cloud Platform</a> (there is 300$ free trial) or other platforms. There is also this <strong><a href="https://kubernetes.io/docs/setup/scratch/" rel="noreferrer">guide</a></strong> in Kubernetes documentation where you can run Kubernetes on physical device step by step:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Note that it requires considerably more effort than using one of the
  pre-defined guides.</p>
  
  <p>This guide is also useful for those wanting to understand at a high
  level some of the steps that existing cluster setup scripts are
  making.</p>
</blockquote>
