- kubeadm: ensured that a variety of API server requests were retried during "init", "join", "upgrade", "reset" workflows. Prior to this change, some API server requests, such as creating or updating ConfigMaps, were "one-shot" - i.e., they could fail if the API server dropped connectivity for a very short period of time.
   ([#123271](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/123271), [@neolit123](https://github.com/neolit123))

          "optional": {
            "description": "optional specify whether the ConfigMap or its keys must be defined",
            "type": "boolean"
          }
        },
        "type": "object"
      },
      "io.k8s.api.core.v1.ConfigMapVolumeSource": {

- `--sync-frequency` will not affect the update interval of volumes that use `ConfigMaps`
  or `Secrets` when the `configMapAndSecretChangeDetectionStrategy` is set to `Cache`.

remained in alpha ever since due to performance and correctness issues inherent in its design. This PR exposes a second, independent pruning alpha powered by a new standard named `ApplySets`. An `ApplySet` is a server-side object (by default, a Secret; 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...

- Kubeadm: do not upload kubelet patch configuration into `kube-system/kubelet-config` ConfigMap ([#123107](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/123107), [@SataQiu](https://github.com/SataQiu)) [SIG Cluster Lifecycle]