* kubelet: updated logic of verifying a static critical pod. ([#75144](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/75144), [@Huang-Wei](https://github.com/Huang-Wei))
* Allow disable outbound SNAT when Azure standard load balancer is used together with outbound rules.  ([#75282](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/75282), [@feiskyer](https://github.com/feiskyer))

* Allow disable outbound SNAT when Azure standard load balancer is used together with outbound rules.  ([#75282](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/75282), [@feiskyer](https://github.com/feiskyer))

* Allow disable outbound SNAT when Azure standard load balancer is used together with outbound rules.  ([#75282](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/75282), [@feiskyer](https://github.com/feiskyer))

    - Shared PID namespace, live-restore, and overlay2 were validated.

    - **Known issues**

        - The default iptables FORWARD policy was changed from ACCEPT to
          DROP, which causes outbound container traffic to stop working by
          default. See
          [#40182](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/40182) for
          the workaround.

* Ensure the backend pools are set correctly for Azure SLB with multiple backend pools (e.g. outbound rules) ([#76691](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/76691), [@feiskyer](https://github.com/feiskyer))

- Fixed a concurrent map access in `TopologyCache`'s `HasPopulatedHints` method. ([#118189](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/118189), [@Miciah](https://github.com/Miciah))
- Fixed a regression (`CLIENTSET_PKG: unbound variable`) when invoking deprecated `generate-groups.sh` script. ([#120877](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/120877), [@soltysh](https://github.com/soltysh))

vSphere. ([#59328](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/59328), [@divyenpatel](https://github.com/divyenpatel))

* Emit number of bound and unbound persistent volumes as Metrics. This PR adds four kinds of Volume Metrics for kube-controller-manager: bound PVC numbers, unbound PVC numbers, bound PV numbers and unbound PV numbers. The PVC metrics use namespace as dimension and the PV metrics use StorageClassName as its dimension. With these metrics we can better monitor the use...

## Changelog since v1.18.8

## Changes by Kind

### Bug or Regression

- "unbound immediate PersistentVolumeClaims" causes UnschedulableAndUnresolvable status rather than an Error in the scheduler. ([#93892](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/93892), [@ahg-g](https://github.com/ahg-g)) [SIG Apps and Storage]

- Scheduler: optionally check for available storage capacity before scheduling pods which have unbound volumes (alpha feature with the new `CSIStorageCapacity` feature gate, only works for CSI drivers and depends on support for the feature in a CSI driver deployment) ([#92387](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/92387), [@pohly](https://github.com/pohly))...