- kubeadm has graduated `kubeadm alpha phase` commands to `kubeadm init phase`. This means that the phases of creating a control-plane node are now tightly integrated as part of the `init` command. Alpha features, not yet ready for GA are still kept under `kubeadm alpha` and we appreciate feedback on them.

- Kubernetes no longer monitors firewalld. On systems using firewalld for firewall
  maintenance, kube-proxy will take slightly longer to recover from disruptive
  firewalld operations that delete kube-proxy's iptables rules.

  As a side effect of these changes, kube-proxy's

## Dependencies

* Performance test framework and basic tests for the IPAM controller, to simulate behavior of the four supported modes under lightly loaded and loaded conditions, where load is defined as the number of operations to perform as against the configured kubernetes. ([#61143](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/61143), [@satyasm](https://github.com/satyasm))

  ([#79106](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/79106), [@vbannai](https://github.com/vbannai))

### Instrumentation

- Kibana has been slightly revamped/improved in the latest version ([#80421](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/80421), [@lostick](https://github.com/lostick))

### Network

- DRA: scheduling pods is up to 16x faster, depending on the scenario. Scheduling throughput depends a lot on cluster utilization. It is higher for lightly loaded clusters with free resources and gets lower when the cluster utilization increases. ([#127277](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/127277), [@pohly](https://github.com/pohly)) [SIG API Machinery, Apps, Architecture, Auth, Etcd, Instrumentation,...

- When the `StrictIPCIDRValidation` feature gate is enabled, Kubernetes will be
  slightly stricter about what values will be accepted as IP addresses and network
  address ranges (“CIDR blocks”).
  
  In particular, octets within IPv4 addresses are not allowed to have any leading

* **[stable]** Volume plugin for Portworx added capability to use [Portworx](http://www.portworx.com) as a storage provider for Kubernetes clusters. Portworx pools server capacity and turns servers or cloud instances into converged, highly available compute and storage nodes.
* **[stable]** Add support to use NFSv3, NFSv4, and GlusterFS on GCE/GKE GCI image based clusters.
* **[beta]** Added support for mount options in persistent volumes.

- Fixed bug in `TopologyManager` for ensuring aligned allocations...

#### Volume Plugins