- To avoid soft-deleted pods incorrectly affecting scale up replica count calculations, the HPA controller will stop counting soft-deleted pods for scaling purposes. ([#67067](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/67067), [@moonek](https://github.com/moonek))

- Fix cgroup handling for systemd with cgroup v2 ([#98365](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/98365), [@odinuge](https://github.com/odinuge)) [SIG Node]
- Fix counting error in service/nodeport/loadbalancer quota check ([#97451](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/97451), [@pacoxu](https://github.com/pacoxu)) [SIG API Machinery, Network and Testing]

## Metrics Changes

### Added metrics

- Added metrics `aggregator_openapi_v2_regeneration_count`, `aggregator_openapi_v2_regeneration_gauge` and `apiextension_openapi_v2_regeneration_count` counting the triggering APIService and CRDs and the reason (add, update, delete) when kube-apiserver regenerates the OpenAPI spec. ([#81786](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/81786), [@sttts](https://github.com/sttts))

- Fixed `JobTrackingWithFinalizers` that:
  - was declaring a job finished before counting all the created pods in the status
  - was leaving pods with finalizers, blocking pod and job deletions

## Changelog since v1.17.16

## Changes by Kind

### Bug or Regression

- Fix counting error in service/nodeport/loadbalancer quota check ([#97830](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/97830), [@pacoxu](https://github.com/pacoxu)) [SIG API Machinery and Network]

- The kube-proxy `sync_proxy_rules_iptables_total` metric has now reverted back
  to its pre-1.27 behavior of tracking the total number of iptables rules that
  kube-proxy is responsible for, rather than only counting the number of rules
  that it re-synced on the last sync. The new `sync_proxy_rules_iptables_last`

- Fix Azure file share not deleted issue when the namespace is deleted ([#97417](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/97417), [@andyzhangx](https://github.com/andyzhangx)) [SIG Cloud Provider and Storage]
- Fix counting error in service/nodeport/loadbalancer quota check ([#97829](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/97829), [@pacoxu](https://github.com/pacoxu)) [SIG API Machinery and Network]

1D357..1D35F  ; disallowed                             # NA   <reserved-1D357>..<reserved-1D35F>
1D360..1D371  ; valid                  ;      ; NV8    # 5.0  COUNTING ROD UNIT DIGIT ONE..COUNTING ROD TENS DIGIT NINE
1D372..1D378  ; valid                  ;      ; NV8    # 11.0 IDEOGRAPHIC TALLY MARK ONE..TALLY MARK FIVE

### Bug or Regression

- Fix Job tracking with finalizers for more than 500 pods, ensuring all finalizers are removed before counting the Pod. ([#104876](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/104876), [@alculquicondor](https://github.com/alculquicondor)) [SIG Apps]
- Fix: skip case sensitivity when checking Azure NSG rules

- Fix Azure file share not deleted issue when the namespace is deleted ([#97417](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/97417), [@andyzhangx](https://github.com/andyzhangx)) [SIG Cloud Provider and Storage]
- Fix counting error in service/nodeport/loadbalancer quota check ([#97826](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/97826), [@pacoxu](https://github.com/pacoxu)) [SIG API Machinery and Network]