* Ensured IP is set for Azure internal load balancer. ([#59083](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/59083), [@feiskyer](https://github.com/feiskyer))

*   The default `auto-detect` behavior of the kubelet's `--cloud-provider` flag is removed.
    *   You can manually set `--cloud-provider=auto-detect`, but be aware that this behavior will be removed completely in a future version.
    *   Best practice for version 1.9 and future versions is to explicitly set a cloud-provider. See [the documentation](https://kubernetes.io/docs/getting-started-guides/scratch/#cloud-providers)

  * Authorization sets `authorization.k8s.io/decision` and `authorization.k8s.io/reason` annotations with the authorization decision ("allow" or "forbid") and a human-readable description of why the decision was made (for example, RBAC includes the name of the role/binding/subject which allowed a request).

Besides the above new features, support for Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) and Cluster-Autoscaler is now stable and considered GA:

- Azure virtual machine scale sets (VMSS) allow you to create and manage identical load balanced VMs that automatically increase or decrease based on demand or a set schedule.

MUST read this before you upgrade)

- Kube-proxy's IPVS proxy mode no longer sets the net.ipv4.conf.all.route_localnet sysctl parameter. Nodes upgrading will have net.ipv4.conf.all.route_localnet set to 1 but new nodes will inherit the system default (usually 0). If you relied on any behavior requiring net.ipv4.conf.all.route_localnet, you must set ensure it is enabled as kube-proxy will no longer set it automatically. This change helps to further mitigate CVE-2020-8558. ([#92938](https...

For more information, see [#53154](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/53154).

* `kubectl set` commands placed on ReplicaSet and DaemonSet occasionally return version errors. All set commands, including set image, set env, set resources, and set serviceaccounts, are affected.

For more information, see [#53040](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/53040).

- Fix: set nil cache entry based on old cache ([#87591](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/87591), [@aramase](https://github.com/aramase)) [SIG Cloud Provider]

  - scrape_error --> scrape_error
  - node_cpu_usage_seconds_total --> node_cpu_usage_seconds
  - node_memory_working_set_bytes --> node_memory_working_set_bytes
  - container_cpu_usage_seconds_total --> container_cpu_usage_seconds
  - container_memory_working_set_bytes --> container_memory_working_set_bytes
  - scrape_error --> scrape_error 

ConfigMaps are also allowed) that kubectl can use to accurately and efficiently track set membership across `apply` operations. The format used for `ApplySet` is set out in  [KEP 3659](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/issues/3659) as a low-level specification.  Other tools in the ecosystem can also build on this specification for improved interoperability.  To try the ApplySet-based pruning alpha, set `KUBECTL_APPLYSET=true` and use the flags `--prune --applyset=secret-name` with `kubectl...

- Pods which set `hostNetwork: true` and declare ports, get the `hostPort` field set automatically. Previously this would happen in the PodTemplate of a Deployment, DaemonSet or other workload API.  Now `hostPort` will only be set when an actual Pod is being created.  If this presents a problem, setting the feature gate "DefaultHostNetworkHostPortsInPodTemplates" to true...