### SIG GCP

* Kubernetes clusters on GCE now have crictl installed. Users can use it to help debug their nodes. See the [crictl documentation](https://github.com/kubernetes-incubator/cri-tools/blob/master/docs/crictl.md) for details. ([#63357](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/63357), [@Random-Liu](https://github.com/Random-Liu))

- Runtime handler and Windows npipe protocol are not supported yet in crictl v1.11.x. Those features will be supported in crictl [v1.12.0](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cri-tools/releases/tag/v1.12.0), together with Kubernetes v1.12.1.

## Major Themes

### SIG API Machinery

- Update crictl to v1.16.1. ([#82856](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/82856), [@Random-Liu](https://github.com/Random-Liu))

    *   [Kube-up.sh integration](https://github.com/kubernetes-incubator/cri-containerd/blob/master/docs/kube-up.md).
    *   [Full crictl integration including CRI verbose option.](https://github.com/kubernetes-incubator/cri-containerd/blob/master/docs/crictl.md)
    *   Integration with cadvisor to provide better summary api support.

- kubeadm: don't warn if `crictl` binary does not exist since kubeadm does not rely on `crictl` since v1.31. ([#126596](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/126596), [@saschagrunert](https://github.com/saschagrunert)) [SIG Cluster Lifecycle]

- Updated crictl to v1.12.0 ([#69033](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/69033), [@feiskyer](https://github.com/feiskyer))

### SIG Network

- Kubeadm: Switched kubeadm to start using the CRI client library instead of shelling out of the `crictl` binary
  for actions against a CRI endpoint. The kubeadm deb/rpm packages will continue to install the `cri-tools`
  package for one more release, but in you must adapt your scripts to install `crictl` manually from
  https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cri-tools/releases or a different location.
  

ServiceCheck for the `docker` service from kubeadm preflight. Docker is no longer special cased during host validation and ideally this task should be done in the now external cri-dockerd project where the importance of the compatibility matters. Use `crictl` for all communication with CRI sockets for actions like pulling images and obtaining a list of running containers instead of using the docker CLI in the case of Docker. ([#107317](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/107317), [@neolit12...

- Kubeadm: now sets the host `OS` environment variables when executing `crictl` during image pulls. This fixed a bug where `*PROXY` environment variables did not affect `crictl` internet connectivity. ([#110134](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/110134), [@mk46](https://github.com/mk46))

- `kubeadm:` fixed a bug where the static pod changes detection logic is inconsistent
  with kubelet. ([#118069](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/118069), [@SataQiu](https://github.com/SataQiu))
- `kubeadm`: `crictl pull` should use `-i` to set the image service endpoint. ([#117835](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/117835), [@pacoxu](https://github.com/pacoxu))