* vSphere cloud provider: Remove the dependency of login information on worker nodes for vsphere cloud provider. ([#43545](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/43545), [@luomiao](https://github.com/luomiao))

### Add MinIO as an object store for Veeam

Follow the steps from the Veeam documentation for adding MinIO as an object store - <https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/vsphere/adding_s3c_object_storage.html?ver=100>

For Veeam Backup with Immutability, choose the amount of days you want to make backups immutable for

		}
		// In Kubernetes environment, try to fetch the Operator, VSPHERE plugin version
		opVersion := env.Get("MINIO_OPERATOR_VERSION", "")
		if opVersion != "" {
			uaAppend(" operator-", opVersion)
		}
		vsphereVersion := env.Get("MINIO_VSPHERE_PLUGIN_VERSION", "")
		if vsphereVersion != "" {
			uaAppend(" vsphere-plugin-", vsphereVersion)
		}
	}

	if IsPCFTile() {

* Fix space issue in volumePath with vSphere Cloud Provider ([#38338](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/38338), [@BaluDontu](https://github.com/BaluDontu))
* Fix panic in vSphere cloud provider ([#38423](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/38423), [@BaluDontu](https://github.com/BaluDontu))

    * ...
    * I0109 11:17:59.430113       1 vsphere.go:1334] The canonical volume path for the newly created vSphere volume is "[vsanDatastore] 98db185c-6683-d8c7-bc55-0200435ec5da/kubernetes-dynamic-pvc-34650c12-1400-11e9-aef4-005056804cc9.vmdk"
    * Ran regression tests (no zone) and they passed.

* Fix space issue in volumePath with vSphere Cloud Provider ([#38338](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/38338), [@BaluDontu](https://github.com/BaluDontu))
* Fix issue when attempting to unmount a wrong vSphere volume ([#37413](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/37413), [@BaluDontu](https://github.com/BaluDontu))

* Reduced excessive logging from fluentd-gcp-scaler. ([#68837](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/68837), [@x13n](https://github.com/x13n))
* locking fix in vSphere cleanup function ([#68388](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/68388), [@wgliang](https://github.com/wgliang))
    * The vSphere cloud provider has a cleanup function with a loop,
    * inside of which a write lock was intended to prevent races against

### Other notable changes

* AWS: Add ap-south-1 to list of known AWS regions ([#28428](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/28428), [@justinsb](https://github.com/justinsb))
* Back porting critical vSphere bug fixes to release 1.3 ([#31993](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/31993), [@dagnello](https://github.com/dagnello))

- `diskformat` storage class parameter for in-tree vSphere volume plugin is deprecated as of v1.21 release. Please consider updating storageclass and remove `diskformat` parameter. vSphere CSI Driver does not support diskformat storageclass parameter.
  
  vSphere releases less than 67u3 are deprecated as of v1.21. Please consider upgrading vSphere to 67u3 or above. vSphere CSI Driver requires minimum vSphere 67u3.
  

### SIG vSphere

* Added a mechanism in vSphere Cloud Provider to get credentials from Kubernetes secrets, rather than the plain text `vsphere.conf` file.([#63902](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/63902), [@abrarshivani](https://github.com/abrarshivani))