- Replaced Boolean-pointer-helper functions with the `k8s.io/utils/ptr` implementations. ([#132794](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/132794), [@PatrickLaabs](https://github.com/PatrickLaabs)) [SIG API Machinery, Auth, CLI, Node and Testing]

### Other (Cleanup or Flake)

- Service session affinity timeout tests are no longer required for Kubernetes network plugin conformance due to variations in existing implementations. New conformance tests will be developed to better express conformance in future releases. ([#112806](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/112806), [@dcbw](https://github.com/dcbw)) [SIG Architecture, Network and Testing]

Related to this topic, the in-tree Azure and GCP authentication plugins have been [deprecated](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/102181) in favor of out-of-tree implementations.

### Server-side Apply graduates to GA

The following PRs changed the API spec:
  * In the new v1alpha2 kubeadm Configuration API, the `.CloudProvider` and `.PrivilegedPods` fields don't exist anymore. Instead, you should use the out-of-tree cloud provider implementations, which are beta in v1.11.

- QueueingHint implementation for NodeAffinity is reverted because we found potential scenarios where events that make Pods schedulable could be missed. ([#122285](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/122285), [@sanposhiho](https://github.com/sanposhiho)) [SIG Scheduling]

## Changes by Kind

### Deprecation

- Deprecated `Service.Spec.LoadBalancerIP`. This field was under-specified and its meaning varies across implementations.  As of Kubernetes v1.24, users are encouraged to use implementation-specific annotations when available.  This field may be removed in a future API version. ([#107235](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/107235), [@uablrek](https://github.com/uablrek))

- Scheduler framework: Allowed PreBind implementations to return Pending and Unschedulable status codes. ([#125360](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/125360), [@pohly](https://github.com/pohly))

- Service session affinity timeout tests are no longer required for Kubernetes network plugin conformance due to variations in existing implementations. New conformance tests will be developed to better express conformance in future releases. ([#112806](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/112806), [@dcbw](https://github.com/dcbw)) [SIG Architecture, Network and Testing]

* [stable] [cri-o](https://github.com/kubernetes-incubator/cri-o): CRI implementation for OCI-based runtimes [[@mrunalp](https://github.com/mrunalp)]

  * Passed all the Kubernetes 1.7 end-to-end conformance test suites.
  * Verification against Kubernetes 1.8 is planned soon after the release.

increased from v1alpha1 to v1alpha2. Runtimes implementing the CRI will need to update to the new version, which configures container namespaces using an enumeration rather than booleans. This change to the alpha API is not backwards compatible; implementations of the CRI such as containerd, will need to update to the new API version. ([#58973](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/58973), [@verb](https://github.com/verb))

* The default Flexvolume plugin directory for COS images...