release.  A new alpha feature is introduced to improve the mechanism that nodes heartbeat back to the control plane.  The `NodeLease` feature results in the node using a `Lease` resource in the `kube-node-lease` namespace that is renewed periodically.  The `NodeStatus` that was used previously to heartbeat back to the control plane is only updated when it changes.  This reduces load on the control plane for large clusters. The Kubelet plugin registration mechanism, which enables automatic discovery...

  - The `kubeadm upgrade node config` and `kubeadm upgrade node experimental-control-plane` commands are deprecated in favor of `kubeadm upgrade node`, and will be removed in a future release. ([#78408](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/78408), [@fabriziopandini](https://github.com/fabriziopandini))

- Kubeadm: updated the supported etcd version to v3.5.23 for supported control plane versions v1.31, v1.32, and v1.33. ([#134692](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/134692), [@joshjms](https://github.com/joshjms)) [SIG Cluster Lifecycle and Etcd]

may be a (possibly <a href="#Labeled_statements">labeled</a>)
<a href="#Fallthrough_statements">"fallthrough" statement</a> to
indicate that control should flow from the end of this clause to
the first statement of the next clause.
Otherwise control flows to the end of the "switch" statement.
A "fallthrough" statement may appear as the last statement of all
but the last clause of an expression switch.
</p>

- github.com/bufbuild/protovalidate-go: [v0.9.1](https://github.com/bufbuild/protovalidate-go/tree/v0.9.1)
- github.com/envoyproxy/go-control-plane/envoy: [v1.32.4](https://github.com/envoyproxy/go-control-plane/tree/envoy/v1.32.4)
- github.com/envoyproxy/go-control-plane/ratelimit: [v0.1.0](https://github.com/envoyproxy/go-control-plane/tree/ratelimit/v0.1.0)
- github.com/go-jose/go-jose/v4: [v4.0.4](https://github.com/go-jose/go-jose/tree/v4.0.4)

gate. It could be used to tell kubeadm to wait for all control plane components to be ready when running "kubeadm init" or "kubeadm join --control-plane". Previously, kubeadm only waited for the kube-apiserver. The "kubeadm join" workflow now includes a new experimental phase called "wait-control-plane". This phase was marked as non-experimental when WaitForAllControlPlaneComponents became GA. Accordingly, a "kubeadm init" phase "wait-control-plane" was also available once WaitForAllControlPlaneComponents...

Kubeadm: Automate certificate copy between control planes in HA setups

- Joining control plane nodes to a HA cluster can now be simplified by enabling the optional automatic copy of certificates from an existing control plane node.
- You can now use `kubeadm init --experimental-upload-certs` and `kubeadm join --experimental-control-plane --certificate-key`.

- Restores priority of static control plane pods in the cluster/gce/manifests control-plane manifests ([#89970](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/89970), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt)) [SIG Cluster Lifecycle and Node]

### Other (Cleanup or Flake)

configuration file, that gets 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...

ControlPlaneKubeletLocalMode feature gate. It can be used to tell kubeadm to use the local kube-apiserver endpoint for the kubelet when creating a cluster with "kubeadm init" or when joining control plane nodes with "kubeadm join".  The "kubeadm join" workflow now includes two new experimental phases called "control-plane-join-etcd" and "kubelet-wait-bootstrap" which will be used when the feature gate is enabled. This phases will be marked as non-experimental when ControlPlaneKubeletLocalMode becomes...