- Scheduler no longer runs the plugin's `Filter` method when its `PreFilter` method returned a Skip status.
  In other words, your `PreFilter`/`Filter` plugin can return a Skip status in `PreFilter` if the plugin does nothing in Filter for that Pod.
  Scheduler skips `NodeAffinity` Filter plugin when `NodeAffinity` Filter plugin has nothing to do with a Pod.

- Kubectl/drain: add skip-wait-for-delete-timeout option. If a pod’s  `DeletionTimestamp` is older than N seconds, skip waiting for the pod.  Seconds must be greater than 0 to skip. ([#85577](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/85577), [@michaelgugino](https://github.com/michaelgugino)) [SIG CLI]

`post-upgrade` phases. Users can use `kubeadm upgrade node phase addon` to execute the addon upgrade, or use `kubeadm upgrade node --skip-phases addon` to skip the addon upgrade. If you were previously skipping an addon subphase on `kubeadm init` you should now skip the same addon when calling `kubeadm upgrade apply` and `kubeadm upgrade node`. Currently, the `post-upgrade` phase is no-op, and it is mainly used to handle some release-specific post-upgrade tasks. ([#127242](https://github.com/kube...

- The scheduler skips the `InterPodAffinity` Score plugin when nothing to do with the Pod.
  It will affect some metrics values related to the InterPodAffinity Score plugin. ([#117794](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/117794), [@utam0k](https://github.com/utam0k)) [SIG Scheduling]
- The scheduler skips the `PodTopologySpread` Filter plugin if no spread constraints.

    - [HorizontalPodAutoscaler v2 graduates to GA](#horizontalpodautoscaler-v2-graduates-to-ga)
    - [Generic Ephemeral Volume feature graduates to GA](#generic-ephemeral-volume-feature-graduates-to-ga)
    - [Skip Volume Ownership change graduates to GA](#skip-volume-ownership-change-graduates-to-ga)

- Skip [k8s.io/kubernetes@v1.19.0/test/e2e/storage/testsuites/base.go:162]: Driver azure-disk doesn't support snapshot type DynamicSnapshot -- skipping

* The scheduler skips pods that use a PVC that either does not exist or is being deleted. ([#55957](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/55957), [@jsafrane](https://github.com/jsafrane))

### Other changes

- The `--certificate-authority` flag now correctly overrides existing skip-TLS or CA data settings in the kubeconfig file ([#83547](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/83547), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt))
### Cloud Provider

- Fixed bug with leads to Node goes `Not-ready` state when credentials for vCenter stored in a secret and Zones feature is in use. Zone labels setup moved to KCM component, kubelet skips this step during startup in such case. If credentials stored in cloud-provider config file as plaintext current behaviour does not change and no action required. For proper functioning `kube-system:vsphere-legacy-cloud-provider` should be allowed to...

- Kubeadm: add a new field `skipPhases` to `v1beta3` `InitConfiguration` and `JoinConfiguration` that can contain a list of phases to skip during "kubeadm init" and "kubeadm join". The flag "--skip-phases" takes precedence over this field. ([#101923](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/101923), [@neolit123](https://github.com/neolit123))