*   Azure Load Balancer Auto Mode: Services can be annotated to allow auto selection of available load balancers and to provide specific availability sets that host the load balancers (for example, `service.beta.kubernetes.io/azure-load-balancer-mode=auto|as1,as2...`)

### **CLI**

#### **Kubectl**

- Upgrades `IPv6Dualstack` to `Beta` and turns it on by default. New clusters or existing clusters are not be affected until an actor starts adding secondary Pods and service CIDRS CLI flags as described here: [IPv4/IPv6 Dual-stack](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/tree/master/keps/sig-network/563-dual-stack) ([#98969](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/98969),...

- Support for the alpha seccomp annotations `seccomp.security.alpha.kubernetes.io/pod` and `container.seccomp.security.alpha.kubernetes.io` were deprecated since v1.19, now have been completely removed. The seccomp fields are no longer auto-populated when pods with seccomp annotations are created. Pods should use the corresponding pod or container `securityContext.seccompProfile` field instead. ([#114947](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/114947), [@saschagrunert](https:/...

* The kubelet's `--cloud-provider=auto-detect` feature has been removed; make certain to specify the cloud provider. ([#56287](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/56287), [@stewart-yu](https://github.com/stewart-yu))

     disabled by setting the `--horizontal-pod-autoscaler-use-rest-clients` flag to `false`.

### Cluster Lifecycle

- The `auto-detect` behavior of the kubelet's `--cloud-provider` flag is deprecated.

  - In version 1.8, the default value for the kubelet's `--cloud-provider` flag is `auto-detect`. Be aware that it works only on GCE, AWS and Azure.

- Kube-proxy handles Terminating EndpointSlices conditions and enables zero downtime deployments for Services with ExternalTrafficPolicy=Local author: @andrewsykim ([#117718](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/117718), [@aojea](https://github.com/aojea)) [SIG Network, Testing and Windows]

  - The built-in `system:aws-cloud-provider` cluster role is deprecated and will not be auto-created in a future release. Deployments using the AWS cloud provider should grant required...

# Always check-out / check-in files with LF line endings.
* text=auto eol=lf

hack/verify-flags/known-flags.txt merge=union
test/test_owners.csv merge=union

**/zz_generated.*.go linguist-generated=true
**/types.generated.go linguist-generated=true
**/generated.pb.go linguist-generated=true
**/generated.proto
**/types_swagger_doc_generated.go linguist-generated=true
api/openapi-spec/*.json linguist-generated=true

### Failing Test

- Fixes the `should receive events on concurrent watches in same order` conformance test to work properly on clusters that auto-create additional configmaps in namespaces ([#101950](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/101950), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt)) [SIG API Machinery and Testing]

### Bug or Regression

y.alpha.kubernetes.io`, deprecated since v1.19, was partially removed. Kubelets no longer support the annotations, use of the annotations in static pods is no longer supported, and the seccomp annotations are no longer auto-populated when pods with seccomp fields are created. Auto-population of the seccomp fields from the annotations is planned to be removed in 1.27. Pods  should use the corresponding pod or container `securityContext.seccompProfile` field instead. ([#109819](https://github.com/...