### Bug or Regression

- Avoid GCE API calls when initializing GCE CloudProvider for Kubelets.

* Job controller now respects ControllerRef to avoid fighting over Pods. ([#42176](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/42176), [@enisoc](https://github.com/enisoc))

* CronJob controller now respects ControllerRef to avoid fighting with other controllers. ([#42177](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/42177), [@enisoc](https://github.com/enisoc))

- Avoid caching the Azure VMSS instances whose network profile is nil ([#100948](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/100948), [@feiskyer](https://github.com/feiskyer)) [SIG Cloud Provider]

  
  When adding links which point to resources within git repositories, like
  KEPs or supporting documentation, please reference a specific commit and avoid
  linking directly to the master branch. This ensures that links reference a
  specific point in time, rather than a document that may change over time.
  

  optional string devicePath = 2;
}

// AvoidPods describes pods that should avoid this node. This is the value for a
// Node annotation with key scheduler.alpha.kubernetes.io/preferAvoidPods and
// will eventually become a field of NodeStatus.
message AvoidPods {
  // Bounded-sized list of signatures of pods that should avoid this node, sorted
  // in timestamp order from oldest to newest. Size of the slice is unspecified.

### Tools. JPS

- [`KT-64305`](https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/KT-64305) Kotlin JPS builder requests chunk rebuild with graph implementation
- [`KT-64112`](https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/KT-64112) Avoid using IJ's JPS mappings in Kotlin JPS tests
- [`KT-63799`](https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/KT-63799) Make plugin classpath serialization path agnostic


## 1.9.21

### Compiler

- Avoid caching the Azure VMSS instances whose network profile is nil ([#100948](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/100948), [@feiskyer](https://github.com/feiskyer)) [SIG Cloud Provider]

* Fix metrics API group name in audit configuration ([#53493](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/53493), [@piosz](https://github.com/piosz))
* Use separate client for leader election in scheduler to avoid starving leader election by regular scheduler operations. ([#53793](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/53793), [@wojtek-t](https://github.com/wojtek-t))

* A cluster-autoscaler ClusterRole is added to cover only the functionality required by Cluster Autoscaler and avoid abusing system:cluster-admin role. ([#64503](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/64503), [@kgolab](https://github.com/kgolab))

setting the `UnauthenticatedHTTP2DOSMitigation` feature gate to `true` (it is disabled by default). An API server fronted by an L7 load balancer that already mitigates these http/2 attacks may choose not to enable the kube-apiserver mitigation to avoid disrupting load balancer → kube-apiserver connections if http/2 requests from multiple clients share the same backend connection. An API server on a private network may choose not to enable the kube-apiserver mitigation to prevent performance regressions...