* Health check parameters are configurable to be bigger than default values.
* Scheduling conformance tests related to daemonsets should set the annotation that relaxes node selection restrictions, if any are set. This ensures conformance tests can run on a wider array of clusters. ([#68793](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/68793), [@aveshagarwal](https://github.com/aveshagarwal))

### SIG Scalability

SIG Scalability has mostly focused on stability and deflaking our tests, investing into framework for writing scalability tests (ClusterLoader v2) with a goal to migrate all tests to it by the end of 2018 and on the work towards extending definition of Kubernetes scalability by providing more/better user-friendly SLIs/SLOs.

### SIG Scheduling

* Conformance tests may now include disruptive tests. If you are running tests against a live cluster, consider skipping those tests tagged as `Disruptive` to avoid non-test workloads being impacted. Be aware, skipping any conformance tests (even disruptive ones) will make the results ineligible for consideration for the CNCF Certified Kubernetes program. ([#82664](https://g...

* Scheduling conformance tests related to daemonsets should set the annotation that relaxes node selection restrictions, if any are set. This ensures conformance tests can run on a wider array of clusters. ([#68793](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/68793), [@aveshagarwal](https://github.com/aveshagarwal))

* Scheduling conformance tests related to daemonsets should set the annotation that relaxes node selection restrictions, if any are set. This ensures conformance tests can run on a wider array of clusters. ([#68793](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/68793), [@aveshagarwal](https://github.com/aveshagarwal))

- Replaced deprecated package `k8s.io/utils/pointer` with `k8s.io/utils/ptr` for pod-security-admission tests. ([#132741](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/132741), [@PatrickLaabs](https://github.com/PatrickLaabs))
- Replaced deprecated package `k8s.io/utils/pointer` with `k8s.io/utils/ptr` for the apiextensions-apiservers integration tests. ([#132721](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/132721), [@PatrickLaabs](https://github.com/PatrickLaabs))

- e2e tests that require SSH may now be used against clusters that have nodes without external IP addresses by setting the environment variable `KUBE_SSH_BASTION` to the `host:port` of a machine that is allowed to SSH to those nodes.  The same private key that the test would use is used for the bastion host.  The test connects to the bastion and then tunnels another SSH connection to the node. ([#72286](https:...

### Feature

- Kubernetes is now built with Golang 1.16.9 (#105672, @cpanato) [SIG Cloud Provider, Instrumentation, Release and Testing]

### Failing Test

- Backport: e2e.test now uses the secure port to retrieve metrics data to ensure compatibility with 1.21 and 1.22 (for upgrade tests) (#104328, @pohly) [SIG API Machinery, Instrumentation, Storage and Testing]

### Bug or Regression

- Aggregate errors when putting vmss

    *   Bug fixes in validation test suites.
*   [beta] [cri-containerd](https://github.com/kubernetes-incubator/cri-containerd): CRI implementation for containerd is now v1.0.0-beta.0, [[@Random-Liu](https://github.com/Random-Liu)]
    *   This release supports Kubernetes 1.9+ and containerd v1.0.0+.
    *   Pass all Kubernetes 1.9 e2e test, node e2e test and CRI validation tests.

### Windows support improved

- [Performance dashboards](http://perf-dash.k8s.io/#/?jobname=soak-tests-capz-windows-2019) added support for Windows
- [Unit tests](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/51540) added support for Windows
- [Conformance tests](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/108592) added support for Windows