### SIG Azure

* The Azure cloud provider now supports standard SKU load balancer and public IP.
`excludeMasterFromStandardLB` defaults to true, which means master nodes are excluded from the standard load balancer. Also note that because all nodes (except master) are added as loadbalancer backends, the standard load balancer doesn't work with the `service.beta.kubernetes.io/azure-load-balancer-mode` annotation.

forwarded to kubelet static pods to control pull policy for etcd and control plane images. This option allows for precise image pull policy specification for master nodes and thus for more tight control over images. It is useful in CI environments and in environments, where the user has total control over master VM templates (thus, the master VM templates can be preloaded with the required Docker images for the control plane services). ([#58960](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/58960),...

- kubeadm: all master components are now exclusively relying on the `PriorityClassName` pod spec for annotating them as cluster critical components. Since `scheduler.alpha.kubernetes.io/critical-pod` annotation is no longer supported by Kubernetes 1.14 this annotation is no longer added to master components. ([#73857](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/73857), [@ereslibre](https://github.com/ereslibre))...

- Ensured that the `node-role.kubernetes.io/master` taint is applied to the master with NoSchedule on GCE. ([#78183](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/78183), [@cheftako](https://github.com/cheftako))
- Windows nodes on GCE now use a known-working 1809 image rather than the latest 1809 image. ([#76722](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/76722), [@pjh](https://github.com/pjh))

  - `priority_level_seat_count_watermarks` is removed.
  - `priority_level_request_count_samples` is replaced with `priority_level_request_utilization`, which samples every nanosecond rather than every millisecond; the old metric conveyed utilization despite its name.

### Other notable changes

* Connections from Pods to Services with 0 endpoints will now ICMP reject immediately, rather than blackhole and timeout. ([#72534](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/72534), [@thockin](https://github.com/thockin))
* Services of type=LoadBalancer which have no endpoints will now immediately ICMP reject connections, rather than time out. ([#74394](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/74394), [@thockin](https://github.com/thockin))

`second stage` of the plan to migrate kubeadm away from the usage of the word `master` in labels and taints. For new clusters, the label `node-role.kubernetes.io/master` will no longer be added to control plane nodes, only the label `node-role.kubernetes.io/control-plane` will be added. For clusters that are being upgraded to 1.24 with `kubeadm upgrade apply`, the command will remove the label `node-role.kubernetes.io/master` from existing control plane nodes. For new clusters, both the old taint `n...

  - Make "kubeadm upgrade apply" add the "node-role.kubernetes.io/control-plane" label on existing nodes that only have the "node-role.kubernetes.io/master" label during upgrade.
  - Please adapt your tooling built on top of kubeadm to use the "node-role.kubernetes.io/control-plane" label.

- Pkg k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/storage/cacher, method (*Cacher) Wait(context.Context) error ([#125450](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/125450), [@mauri870](https://github.com/mauri870)) [SIG API Machinery]

### Bug or Regression

- [API Server Network Proxy](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/blob/master/keps/sig-api-machinery/1281-network-proxy/README.md) going alpha in 1.16.
- [Extensions](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/blob/master/keps/sig-cloud-provider/991-cloud-controller-migration/README.md) for Cloud Controller Manager Migration.