* Improve Azure instance metadata handling by adding caches. ([#70353](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/70353), [@feiskyer](https://github.com/feiskyer))
* Fix cloud-controller-manager crash when using OpenStack provider and PersistentVolume initializing controller   ([#70459](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/70459), [@mvladev](https://github.com/mvladev))

    * Action required: Before upgrading your Kubernetes clusters, double check if you had configured webhooks for cluster-scoped objects (e.g., nodes, persistentVolume), these webhooks will start to take effect. Delete/modify the configs if that's not desirable.

### Other notable changes

([#63445](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/63445), [@ericchiang](https://github.com/ericchiang))
* Alpha annotation for PersistentVolume node affinity has been removed.  Update your PersistentVolumes to use the beta PersistentVolume.nodeAffinity field before upgrading to this release. ([#61816](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/61816), [@wackxu
](https://github.com/wackxu))

  much later). ([#122815](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/122815), [@wedaly](https://github.com/wedaly)) [SIG Network]
- If a pvc has an empty storageClassName, persistentvolume controller won't try to assign a default StorageClass ([#122704](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/122704), [@carlory](https://github.com/carlory)) [SIG Apps and Storage]

- If you are running the cloud-controller-manager and you have the `pvlabel.kubernetes.io` alpha Initializer enabled, you must now enable PersistentVolume labeling using the `PersistentVolumeLabel` admission controller instead. You can do this by adding `PersistentVolumeLabel` in the `--enable-admission-plugins` kube-apiserver flag.  ([#73102](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/73102),...

* Fix bug with error "Volume has no class annotation" when deleting a PersistentVolume. ([#43982](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/43982), [@jsafrane](https://github.com/jsafrane))



# v1.6.1

- Ceph RBD volume plugin now does not use any keyring (`/etc/ceph/ceph.client.lvs01cinder.keyring`, `/etc/ceph/ceph.keyring`, `/etc/ceph/keyring`, `/etc/ceph/keyring.bin`) for authentication. Ceph user credentials must be provided in PersistentVolume objects and referred Secrets. ([#75588](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/75588), [@smileusd](https://github.com/smileusd))

- Fix: skip case sensitivity when checking Azure NSG rules. ([#104384](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/104384), [@feiskyer](https://github.com/feiskyer))

- For statically provisioned PVs, if their volume source is of CSI type or they have a migrated annotation, when they are deleted, the PersistentVolume controller won't change their phase to the Failed state. With this patch, the external provisioner can remove the finalizer in the next reconcile loop. Unfortunately, if a previously existing PV has the Failed state, this patch won't take effect....

### SIG OpenStack

- Fixed cloud-controller-manager crash when using OpenStack provider and PersistentVolume initializing controller   ([#70459](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/70459), [@mvladev](https://github.com/mvladev))

### SIG Release