- Fix: set nil cache entry based on old cache ([#87593](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/87593), [@aramase](https://github.com/aramase)) [SIG Cloud Provider]

- Updated cri-tools to v1.32.0. ([#129116](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/129116), [@saschagrunert](https://github.com/saschagrunert)) [SIG Cloud Provider]
- Upgrade CoreDNS to v1.12.0 ([#128926](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/128926), [@bzsuni](https://github.com/bzsuni)) [SIG Cloud Provider and Cluster Lifecycle]

## Dependencies

### Added

- Fix: do not delete the lb that does not exist (#105777, @nilo19) [SIG Cloud Provider]
- Fix: ignore not a VMSS error for VMAS nodes in EnsureBackendPoolDeleted. (#105185, @ialidzhikov) [SIG Cloud Provider]
- Fix: leave the probe path empty for TCP probes (#105253, @nilo19) [SIG Cloud Provider]

* The AWS credential provider can now obtain ECR credentials even without the AWS cloud provider or being on an EC2 instance. Additionally, AWS credential provider caching has been improved to honor the ECR credential timeout. ([#75587](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/75587), [@tiffanyfay](https://github.com/tiffanyfay))

- Kubernetes is now built with Golang 1.16.9 (#105671, @cpanato) [SIG Cloud Provider, Instrumentation, Release and Testing]

### Bug or Regression

- Fix: consolidate logs for instance not found error (#105366, @nilo19) [SIG Cloud Provider]
- Fix: ignore not a VMSS error for VMAS nodes in EnsureBackendPoolDeleted. (#105400, @ialidzhikov) [SIG Cloud Provider]

  /**
   * By default delegates to {@link Object#hashCode}. The dynamic proxies' {@code hashCode()} will
   * delegate to this method. Subclasses can override this method to provide custom equality.
   */
  @Override
  public int hashCode() {
    return super.hashCode();
  }

  /**
   * By default delegates to {@link Object#toString}. The dynamic proxies' {@code toString()} will

*   The default `auto-detect` behavior of the kubelet's `--cloud-provider` flag is removed.
    *   You can manually set `--cloud-provider=auto-detect`, but be aware that this behavior will be removed completely in a future version.
    *   Best practice for version 1.9 and future versions is to explicitly set a cloud-provider. See [the documentation](https://kubernetes.io/docs/getting-started-guides/scratch/#cloud-providers)

        }
    }

    // Test provider as CookieResourceProvider interface
    public void test_asInterface() {
        CookieResourceProvider provider = cookieResourceProvider;
        assertNotNull(provider);

        String path = provider.provideDefaultPath();
        assertEquals("/test/path", path);

        Integer expire = provider.provideDefaultExpire();

SIG-VMware development was primarily focused on fixing bugs for the in-tree cloud provider, starting the development of the external cloud provider and taking ownership of the cluster-api provider for vSphere.

In-tree cloud provider bug fixes and improvements included:
- Adding initial Zones support to the provider using vSphere Tags
- Improving the testing harness for the cloud provider by introducing vcsim for automated testing

- The Kubelet's `--cloud-provider` and `--cloud-config` options are now marked as deprecated. ([#90408](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/90408), [@knabben](https://github.com/knabben)) [SIG Cloud Provider and Node]