- Fixed a data race in the kubelet image manager that can cause static pod workers to silently stop working. ([#88915](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/88915), [@roycaihw](https://github.com/roycaihw)) [SIG Node]

- "unfinished_work_microseconds" is added to the workqueue metrics; it can be used to detect stuck worker threads. (kube-controller-manager runs many workqueues.) ([#70884](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/70884), [@lavalamp](https://github.com/lavalamp))

* Use upgraded container-vm by default on worker nodes for GCE k8s clusters ([#31023](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/31023), [@vishh](https://github.com/vishh))

### Other notable changes

- Flag `--concurrent-node-syncs` has been added to cloud node controller which defines how many workers in parallel will be initialising and synchronising nodes. ([#113104](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/113104), [@pawbana](https://github.com/pawbana)) [SIG API Machinery, Cloud Provider and Scalability]

- Added `--concurrent-daemonset-syncs` command line flag to kube-controller-manager. This value sets the number of workers for the daemonset controller. ([#128444](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/128444), [@tosi3k](https://github.com/tosi3k))

- The DownwardAPIHugePages feature is beta.  Users may use the feature if all workers in their cluster are min 1.20 version.  The feature will be enabled by default in all installations in 1.22. ([#99610](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/99610), [@derekwaynecarr](https://github.com/derekwaynecarr)) [SIG Node]

    * If you are not switching kube-proxy between different modes, this change should not require...

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- Fixes high CPU usage in kubectl drain ([#95260](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/95260), [@amandahla](https://github.com/amandahla)) [SIG CLI]
- For vSphere Cloud Provider, If VM of worker node is deleted, the node will also be deleted by node controller ([#92608](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/92608), [@lubronzhan](https://github.com/lubronzhan)) [SIG Cloud Provider]

- Enabled `kube-controller-manager` to support '--concurrent-horizontal-pod-autoscaler-syncs' flag to set the number of horizontal pod autoscaler controller workers. ([#108501](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/108501), [@zroubalik](https://github.com/zroubalik))