- Images for cloud-controller-manager, kube-apiserver, kube-controller-manager, and kube-scheduler now contain a minimal /etc/nsswitch.conf and should respect /etc/hosts for lookups ([#69238](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/69238), [@BenTheElder](https://github.com/BenTheElder))

### SIG Scheduling

- `kubelet` now allows pods to use the `net.ipv4.tcp_keepalive_time` sysctl by default
  and the minimal kernel version is 4.5; Pod Security Admission allows this sysctl
  in `v1.29+` versions of the baseline and restricted policies. ([#118846](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/118846), [@cyclinder](https://github.com/cyclinder))

- Kubelet allows pods to use the `net.ipv4.ip_local_reserved_ports` sysctl by default and the minimal kernel version is 3.16; Pod Security admission allows this sysctl in v1.27+ versions of the baseline and restricted policies. ([#115374](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/115374), [@pacoxu](https://github.com/pacoxu)) [SIG Auth, Network...

- The resource version option, when passed to a list call, is now consistently interpreted as the minimum allowed resource version.  Previously when listing resources that had the watch cache disabled clients could retrieve a snapshot at that exact resource version.  If the client requests a resource version newer than the current state, a TimeoutError...

* In-place node upgrades to this release from versions 1.7.14, 1.8.9, and 1.9.4 are not supported if using subpath volumes with PVCs.  Such pods should be drained from the node first.

* The minimum supported version of Docker is now 1.11; if you are using Docker 1.10 or below, be sure to upgrade Docker before upgrading Kubernetes. ([#57845](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/57845), [@yujuhong](https://github.com/yujuhong))

  
  vSphere releases less than 67u3 are deprecated as of v1.21. Please consider upgrading vSphere to 67u3 or above. vSphere CSI Driver requires minimum vSphere 67u3.
  
  VM Hardware version less than 15 is deprecated as of v1.21. Please consider upgrading the Node VM Hardware version to 15 or above. vSphere CSI Driver recommends Node VM's Hardware version set to at least vmx-15.

*   The Go version was upgraded from go1.8.3 to **go1.9.2** ([#51375](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/51375),[ @cblecker](https://github.com/cblecker))
    *   The minimum supported go version bumps to 1.9.1. ([#55301](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/55301),[ @xiangpengzhao](https://github.com/xiangpengzhao))

### Network

- Reduces the cache TTL for negative responses to 5s minimum. ([#74093](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/74093), [@blakebarnett](https://github.com/blakebarnett))

### Node

- VSphere releases less than 7.0u2 are deprecated as of v1.24. Please consider upgrading vSphere to 7.0u2 or above. vSphere CSI Driver requires minimum vSphere 7.0u2.

- The minimum value validation of ReplicationController's `replicas` and `minReadySeconds` fields have been migrated to declarative validation. The requiredness of both fields is also declaratively validated.