* Metadata Agent Improvements ([#66485](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/66485), [@bmoyles0117](https://github.com/bmoyles0117))
    * Bump metadata agent version to 0.2-0.0.21-1.
    * Expand the metadata agent's access to all API groups.
    * Remove metadata agent config maps in favor of command line flags.
    * Update the metadata agent's liveness probe to a new /healthz handler.

### Other notable changes

* Metadata Agent Improvements ([#66485](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/66485), [@bmoyles0117](https://github.com/bmoyles0117))
    * Bump metadata agent version to 0.2-0.0.21-1.
    * Expand the metadata agent's access to all API groups.
    * Remove metadata agent config maps in favor of command line flags.
    * Update the metadata agent's liveness probe to a new /healthz handler.

* Metadata Agent Improvements ([#66485](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/66485), [@bmoyles0117](https://github.com/bmoyles0117))
    * Bump metadata agent version to 0.2-0.0.21-1.
    * Expand the metadata agent's access to all API groups.
    * Remove metadata agent config maps in favor of command line flags.
    * Update the metadata agent's liveness probe to a new /healthz handler.

  - kube-proxy addon starts to use the label `node.kubernetes.io/kube-proxy-ds-ready` instead of `beta.kubernetes.io/kube-proxy-ds-ready` as its node selector.
  - metadata-proxy addon starts to use the label `cloud.google.com/metadata-proxy-ready` instead of `beta.kubernetes.io/metadata-proxy-ready` as its node selector.

#### Storage

- The rules for incrementing `metadata.generation` of custom resources changed: ([#69059](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/69059), [@caesarxuchao](https://github.com/caesarxuchao))
  - If the custom resource participates the spec/status convention, the metadata.generation of the CR increments when there is any change, except for the changes to the metadata or the changes to the status.

- Changed metadata management for Pods to populate `.metadata.generation` on writes. New pods will have a `metadata.generation` of 1; updates to mutable fields in the Pod `.spec` will result in `metadata.generation` being incremented by 1. ([#130181](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/130181), [@natasha41575](https://github.com/natasha41575)) [SIG...

* GCP: allow a master to not include a metadata concealment firewall rule (if it's not running the metadata proxy). ([#58104](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/58104), [@ihmccreery](https://github.com/ihmccreery))

- Fix counting error in service/nodeport/loadbalancer quota check ([#97829](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/97829), [@pacoxu](https://github.com/pacoxu)) [SIG API Machinery and Network]
- Fix: azure file latency issue for metadata-heavy workloads ([#97082](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/97082), [@andyzhangx](https://github.com/andyzhangx)) [SIG Cloud Provider and Storage]

- Updates that remove remaining `metadata.finalizers` from  an object that is pending deletion (non-nil metadata.deletionTimestamp) and has no graceful deletion pending (nil or 0 metadata.deletionGracePeriodSeconds) now results in immediate deletion of the object. ([#77952](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/77952), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt))...

### Other notable changes

* [GCE] Apiserver uses `InternalIP` as the most preferred kubelet address type by default. ([#59019](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/59019), [@MrHohn](https://github.com/MrHohn))
* Use GCE metadata proxy v0.1.4-r1 to pick up security fixes. ([#60245](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/60245), [@ihmccreery](https://github.com/ihmccreery))