- Add a new `vSphere` metric: `cloudprovider_vsphere_vcenter_versions`. Its content shows `vCenter` hostnames with the associated server version. ([#94526](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/94526), [@Danil-Grigorev](https://github.com/Danil-Grigorev)) [SIG Cloud Provider and Instrumentation]

- If firstTimestamp is not set use firstTimestamp or eventTime when printing event ([#91055](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/91055), [@soltysh](https://github.com/soltysh)) [SIG CLI]
- Kubeadm increased to 5 minutes its timeout for the TLS bootstrapping process to complete upon join ([#89735](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/89735), [@rosti](https://github.com/rosti)) [SIG Cluster Lifecycle]
- hyperkube: Use debian-hyperkube-base@v1.1.0 image

- Fix incorrect calculation for ResourceQuota with PriorityClass as its scope. ([#117826](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/117826), [@Huang-Wei](https://github.com/Huang-Wei)) [SIG API Machinery]

* kubeadm has removed `.Etcd.SelfHosting` from its configuration API. It was never used in practice ([#63871](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/63871), [@luxas](https://github.com/luxas))

*   The API group/version for the kube-proxy configuration has changed from `componentconfig/v1alpha1` to `kubeproxy.config.k8s.io/v1alpha1`. If you are using a config file for kube-proxy instead of the command line flags, you must change its apiVersion to `kubeproxy.config.k8s.io/v1alpha1`. ([#53645](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/53645), [@xiangpengzhao](https://github.com/xiangpengzhao))

- The unreachable taint gets applied to a node when it loses its network connection. ([#67734](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/67734), [@Huang-Wei](https://github.com/Huang-Wei))

Additionally, a background task is normally an independent set of logic that should be handled separately, with its own resources (e.g. its own database connection).

### Immutable Secrets and ConfigMaps

Immutable Secrets and ConfigMaps graduates to GA. This feature allows users to specify that the contents of a particular Secret or ConfigMap is immutable for its object lifetime. For such instances, Kubelet will not watch/poll for changes and therefore reducing apiserver load.

### Structured Logging in Kubelet