* Release the kubelet client certificate rotation as beta. ([#51045](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/51045), [@jcbsmpsn](https://github.com/jcbsmpsn))
* Adds --append-hash flag to kubectl create configmap/secret, which will append a short hash of the configmap/secret contents to the name during creation. ([#49961](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/49961), [@mtaufen](https://github.com/mtaufen))

### Immutable Secrets and ConfigMaps (beta)

Secret and ConfigMap volumes can be marked as immutable, which significantly reduces load on the API server if there are many Secret and ConfigMap volumes in the cluster.
See [ConfigMap](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/configmap/) and [Secret](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/secret/) for more information.

	}

	meshConfigMap, err := kubeClient.Kube().CoreV1().ConfigMaps(istioNamespace).Get(context.TODO(), meshConfigMapName, metav1.GetOptions{})
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("could not read configmap %q from namespace %q: %v", meshConfigMapName, istioNamespace, err)
	}

	configYaml, ok := meshConfigMap.Data[istioctlutil.ConfigMapKey]
	if !ok {

				levelString, _ := getLogLevelFromConfigMap(ctx)
				level, ok := stringToLevel[levelString]
				if ok {
					destLoggerLevels[defaultLoggerName] = level
				} else {
					log.Warnf("unable to get logLevel from ConfigMap istio-sidecar-injector, using default value %q for envoy proxies",
						levelToString[defaultEnvoyOutputLevel])
					destLoggerLevels[defaultLoggerName] = defaultEnvoyOutputLevel
				}
			} else if loggerLevelString != "" {

- **Federation**
  - [alpha] Support for ConfigMaps in federation. ([docs](http://kubernetes.io/docs/user-guide/federation/configmap/)) ([kubernetes/features#105](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/issues/105))

- Kubeadm: fix a regression where the KubeletConfiguration is not properly downloaded during "kubeadm upgrade" commands from the kube-system/kubelet-config ConfigMap, resulting in the local '/var/lib/kubelet/config.yaml' file being written as a defaulted config. ([#124497](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/124497), [@neolit123](https://github.com/neolit123)) [SIG Cluster Lifecycle]

  
  v1beta3 is now marked as deprecated but will continue to be supported until version 1.34 or later.
  The storage configuration in the kube-system/kubeadm-config ConfigMap is now a v1beta4 ClusterConfiguration. ([#125029](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/125029), [@neolit123](https://github.com/neolit123))

### 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

* Release the kubelet client certificate rotation as beta. ([#51045](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/51045), [@jcbsmpsn](https://github.com/jcbsmpsn))
* Adds --append-hash flag to kubectl create configmap/secret, which will append a short hash of the configmap/secret contents to the name during creation. ([#49961](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/49961), [@mtaufen](https://github.com/mtaufen))

- Kubeadm: increased the verbosity of API client dry-run actions during the subcommands "init", "join", "upgrade" and "reset". Allowed dry-run on 'kubeadm join' even if there is no existing cluster by utilizing a faked, in-memory cluster-info ConfigMap. ([#126776](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/126776), [@neolit123](https://github.com/neolit123)) [SIG Cluster Lifecycle]