The example below creates a Kubernetes cluster with 4 worker node Virtual Machines and a master Virtual Machine (i.e. 5 VMs in your cluster). This cluster is set up and controlled from your workstation (or wherever you find convenient).
If you want a simplified getting started experience and GUI for managing clusters, please consider trying [Google Container Engine](https://cloud.google.com/container-engine/) for hosted cluster installation and management.
If you want to use custom binaries or pure open source Kubernetes, please continue with the instructions below.
1. You need a Google Cloud Platform account with billing enabled. Visit the [Google Developers Console](http://cloud.google.com/console) for more details.
1. Make sure you can start up a GCE VM from the command line. At least make sure you can do the [Create an instance](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/quickstart#create_an_instance) part of the GCE Quickstart.
1. Make sure you have the `gcloud preview` command line component installed. Simply run `gcloud preview` at the command line - if it asks to install any components, go ahead and install them. If it simply shows help text, you're good to go.
1. Make sure you can ssh into the VM without interactive prompts. See the [Log in to the instance](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/quickstart#ssh) part of the GCE Quickstart.
If you run into trouble please see the section on [troubleshooting](https://github.com/brendandburns/kubernetes/blob/docs/docs/getting-started-guides/gce.md#troubleshooting), or come ask questions on IRC at #google-containers on freenode.