- Kube-apiserver: Each unique set of etcd server overrides specified with `--etcd-servers-overrides` surfaced health checks named `etcd-override-<index>` and `etcd-override-readiness-<index>`. These checks were still excluded by the `?exclude=etcd` and `?exclude=etcd-readiness` directives. ([#129438](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/129438), [@pacoxu](https://github.com/pacoxu)) [SIG API Machinery and Testing]

  - the node label `alpha.service-controller.kubernetes.io/exclude-balancer` which excludes a node from cloud load balancers (using Service Type=LoadBalancer) is deprecated in favor of `node.kubernetes.io/exclude-balancer`. Support for `alpha.service-controller.kubernetes.io/exclude-balancer` will be removed in v1.18.

- Features:

- Kubeadm: apply the "node.kubernetes.io/exclude-from-external-load-balancers" label on control plane nodes during "init", "join" and "upgrade" to preserve backwards compatibility with the lagacy LB mode where nodes labeled as "master" where excluded. To opt-out you can remove the label from a node. See #97543 and the linked KEP for more details. ([#98269](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/98269),...

- Locked the (generally available) feature gate `ExecProbeTimeout` to true. ([#134635](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/134635), [@vivzbansal](https://github.com/vivzbansal)) [SIG Node and Testing]
- Metrics: Excluded `dryRun` requests from `apiserver_request_sli_duration_seconds`. ([#131092](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/131092), [@aldudko](https://github.com/aldudko)) [SIG API Machinery and Instrumentation]

- Discovery document will correctly return the resources for aggregated apiservers that do not implement aggregated disovery ([#115770](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/115770), [@Jefftree](https://github.com/Jefftree))
- Excluded preemptor pod metadata in the event message ([#114923](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/114923), [@mimowo](https://github.com/mimowo))
- Expanded the partial fix for https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/111539

- Azure cloud provider now supports unmanaged nodes (such as on-prem) that are labeled with `kubernetes.azure.com/managed=false` and `alpha.service-controller.kubernetes.io/exclude-balancer=true` ([#67984](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/67984), [@feiskyer](https://github.com/feiskyer)) Courtesy of SIG Azure, and SIG Cloud Provider

### SIG Azure

* The Azure cloud provider now supports standard SKU load balancer and public IP.
`excludeMasterFromStandardLB` defaults to true, which means master nodes are excluded from the standard load balancer. Also note that because all nodes (except master) are added as loadbalancer backends, the standard load balancer doesn't work with the `service.beta.kubernetes.io/azure-load-balancer-mode` annotation.

- Revised the logic for `DaemonSet` rolling update to exclude nodes if scheduling constraints are not met. This eliminates the problem of rolling updates to a `DaemonSet` getting stuck around tolerations. ([#119317](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/119317), [@mochizuki875](https://github.com/mochizuki875))...

- Topology Aware Hints now ignores unready endpoints when assigning hints. ([#106510](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/106510), [@robscott](https://github.com/robscott))
- Topology Hints now excludes control plane notes from capacity calculations. ([#104744](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/104744), [@robscott](https://github.com/robscott))

- When a PreFilterResult filters out certain Nodes, the scheduling framework now categorizes them as rejected via `UnschedulableAndUnresolvable`. Consequently, these nodes are excluded from the candidates for the preemption process. Additionally, this update corrects how the scheduling framework handles the Unschedulable status from PreFilter. Previously, if PreFilter returned `Unschedulable`, it could lead to an unexpected abortion in the preemption process, which shouldn't...