- Fix instance not found issues when an Azure Node is recreated in a short time ([#93316](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/93316), [@feiskyer](https://github.com/feiskyer)) [SIG Cloud Provider]
- Fix: initial delay in mounting azure disk & file ([#93052](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/93052), [@andyzhangx](https://github.com/andyzhangx)) [SIG Cloud Provider and Storage]

## Urgent Upgrade Notes 

### (No, really, you MUST read this before you upgrade)

- Added a delay to node updates after kubelet startup. A random offset, based on the configured `nodeStatusReportFrequency`, helped distribute traffic and load from node status updates more evenly over time. The initial status update could occur up to 50% earlier...

### Misc

- Failed pods associated with a job with `parallelism = 1` are recreated by the job controller honoring exponential backoff delay again. However, for jobs with `parallelism > 1`, pods might be created without exponential backoff delay. ([#115020](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/115020), [@nikhita](https://github.com/nikhita)) [SIG Apps]

- Fixed computing backoff delay when using Job pod failure policy, by including in the backoff delay calculation pod failures ignored from the backoffLimit counter. ([#119434](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/119434), [@mimowo](https://github.com/mimowo))

- Fix: don't use docker config cache if it's empty ([#92330](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/92330), [@andyzhangx](https://github.com/andyzhangx)) [SIG Cloud Provider]
- Fix: initial delay in mounting azure disk & file ([#93052](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/93052), [@andyzhangx](https://github.com/andyzhangx)) [SIG Cloud Provider and Storage]

- Fix computing backoff delay when using Job pod failure policy, by including in the backoff delay calculation pod failures ignored from the backoffLimit counter.
  
  Also, compute the backoff delay more accurately for deleted pods. ([#119466](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/119466), [@mimowo](https://github.com/mimowo)) [SIG Apps]

- Failed pods associated with a job with `parallelism = 1` are recreated by the job controller honoring exponential backoff delay again. However, for jobs with `parallelism > 1`, pods might be created without exponential backoff delay. ([#115027](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/115027), [@nikhita](https://github.com/nikhita)) [SIG Apps]

- Kube-controller-manager: the `horizontal-pod-autoscaler-upscale-delay` and `horizontal-pod-autoscaler-downscale-delay` flags have been removed (deprecated and non-functional since v1.12). ([#124948](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/124948), [@SataQiu](https://github.com/SataQiu)) [SIG API Machinery, Apps and Autoscaling]