3. Ensure you have added or ran the appropriate tests for your PR: https://git.k8s.io/community/contributors/devel/sig-testing/testing.md
4. If you want *faster* PR reviews, read how: https://git.k8s.io/community/contributors/guide/pull-requests.md#best-practices-for-faster-reviews
5. If the PR is unfinished, see how to mark it: https://git.k8s.io/community/contributors/guide/pull-requests.md#marking-unfinished-pull-requests
-->

        Links to go.k8s.io/triage and/or links to specific failures in spyglass are appreciated.
        Please see the deflaking doc (https://github.com/kubernetes/community/blob/master/contributors/devel/sig-testing/flaky-tests.md) for more guidance.
    validations:
      required: true

  - type: textarea
    id: tests
    attributes:
      label: Which tests are flaking?
    validations:

the Cluster Autoscaler, which provides improved performance and error reporting.

[SIG Autoscaling]: https://github.com/kubernetes/community/tree/master/sig-autoscaling

### SIG Cluster Lifecycle

[SIG Cluster Lifecycle][] is responsible for the user experience of deploying,
upgrading, and deleting clusters.

For the 1.8 release, SIG Cluster Lifecycle continued to focus on expanding the

* Update Cluster Autoscaler to 1.12.5 ([#77063](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/77063), [@losipiuk](https://github.com/losipiuk))
    *  - https://github.com/kubernetes/autoscaler/releases/tag/cluster-autoscaler-1.12.5 
    *  - https://github.com/kubernetes/autoscaler/releases/tag/cluster-autoscaler-1.12.4



# v1.12.8

- E2e framework: the `node-role.kubernetes.io/master` taint has been removed from the default value of `--non-blocking-taints` flag. You may need to set `--non-blocking-taints` explicitly if the cluster to be tested has nodes with the deprecated `node-role.kubernetes.io/master` taint. ([#118510](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/118510), [@SataQiu](https://github.com/SataQiu)) [SIG Testing]

- Kubeadm: add support for the "ci/k8s-master" version label as a replacement for "ci-cross/*", which no longer exists. ([#86609](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/86609), [@Pensu](https://github.com/Pensu)) [SIG Cluster Lifecycle]

- Kubeadm: during "join", don't re-add an etcd member if it already exists in the cluster. ([#92118](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/92118), [@neolit123](https://github.com/neolit123)) [SIG Cluster Lifecycle]
- hyperkube: Use debian-hyperkube-base@v1.1.1 image
  

### Other notable changes

* Fix a deadlock in kubeadm master initialization. ([#43835](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/43835), [@mikedanese](https://github.com/mikedanese))

## Major Themes

- **Simplified User Experience**
  - Easier to get a cluster up and running (eg: `kubeadm`, intra-cluster bootstrapping)
  - Easier to understand a cluster (eg: API audit logs, server-based API defaults)
- **Stateful Application Support**
  - Enhanced persistence capabilities (eg: `StorageClasses`, new volume plugins)

## **Deprecations**

### Cluster provisioning scripts
* cluster/ubuntu: Removed due to [deprecation](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/tree/master/cluster#cluster-configuration) and lack of maintenance. ([#44344](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/44344), [@mikedanese](https://github.com/mikedanese))