- Fix: ignore non-VMSS error for VMAS nodes in `reconcileBackendPools`. ([#103997](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/103997), [@nilo19](https://github.com/nilo19))
- Fix: leave the probe path empty for TCP probes ([#105253](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/105253), [@nilo19](https://github.com/nilo19))

- kubeadm: switched the kube-scheduler static Pod to use the endpoints `/livez` (for startup and liveness probes) and `/readyz` (for the readiness probe). Previously, `/healthz` was used for all probes, which is deprecated behavior in the scope of this component. ([#126945](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/126945), [@liangyuanpeng](https://github.com/liangyuanpeng)) [SIG Cluster Lifecycle]...

## Changelog since v1.18.18

## Changes by Kind

### API Change

- We have added a new Priority & Fairness rule that exempts all probes (/readyz, /healthz, /livez) to prevent 
  restarting of "healthy" kube-apiserver instance(s) by kubelet. ([#101114](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/101114), [@tkashem](https://github.com/tkashem)) [SIG API Machinery]

- Updating kubelet permissions check for Windows nodes to see if process is elevated instead of checking if process owner is in Administrators group ([#111078](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/111078), [@marosset](https://github.com/marosset)) [SIG Node and Windows]

## Dependencies

### Added

for purposes such as debugging, similar to how `kubectl exec` runs a process in an existing container. Also like `kubectl exec`, no resources are reserved for ephemeral containers and they are not restarted when they exit. Note that container namespace targeting is not yet implemented, so [process namespace sharing](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/share-process-namespace/) must be enabled to view process from other containers in the pod. ([#59484](https://github.com/kuber...

  - Health check (liveness & readiness) probes using an HTTPGetAction will no longer follow redirects to different hostnames from the original probe request. Instead, these non-local redirects will be treated as a Success (the documented behavior). In this case an event with reason "ProbeWarning" will be generated, indicating that the redirect...

- Implemented logging and event recording for probe results with an `Unknown` status in the kubelet's prober module. This helped improve the diagnosis and monitoring of cases where container probes returned an `Unknown` result, enhancing the observability and reliability of health checks. ([#125901](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/125901), [@jralmaraz](htt...

* azure: update disk lock logic per vm during attach/detach to allow concurrent updates for different nodes. ([#85115](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/85115), [@aramase](https://github.com/aramase))
* Ensure health probes are created for local traffic policy UDP services on Azure ([#85327](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/85327), [@nilo19](https://github.com/nilo19))

* allow group impersonation ([#30803](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/30803), [@deads2k](https://github.com/deads2k))
* Always return command output for exec probes and kubelet RunInContainer ([#30731](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/30731), [@ncdc](https://github.com/ncdc))

- Kubeadm: make sure the etcd static pod startup probe uses /health?serializable=false while the liveness probe uses /health?serializable=true&exclude=NOSPACE. The NOSPACE exclusion would allow administrators to address space issues one member at a time. ([#110744](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/110744), [@neolit1...