- Kube-controller-manager: the `--horizontal-pod-autoscaler-use-rest-clients` flag and Heapster support in the horizontal pod autoscaler, deprecated since 1.12, is removed. ([#90368](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/90368), [@serathius](https://github.com/serathius))

- Kube-controller-manager: the `horizontal-pod-autoscaler-upscale-delay` and `horizontal-pod-autoscaler-downscale-delay` flags have been removed (deprecated and non-functional since v1.12). ([#124948](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/124948), [@SataQiu](https://github.com/SataQiu)) [SIG API Machinery, Apps and Autoscaling]...

  
  ### IONOS
  - Add support for IONOS
  
  ### Kubemark
  - Skip non-kubemark nodes while computing node information for node groups.
  
  ### Magnum
  - Add Magnum support in the Cluster Autoscaler helm chart
  
  ### Packet
  - Allow empty nodepools
  - Add support for multiple nodepools
  - Add pricing support
  
  ## Image

- The scheduler now clears the `nominatedNodeName` field for Pods upon scheduling or binding failure. External components, such as Cluster Autoscaler and Karpenter, should not overwrite this field. ([#135007](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/135007), [@ania-borowiec](https://github.com/ania-borowiec)) [SIG Scheduling and Testing]

- Enabled `kube-controller-manager` to support '--concurrent-horizontal-pod-autoscaler-syncs' flag to set the number of horizontal pod autoscaler controller workers. ([#108501](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/108501), [@zroubalik](https://github.com/zroubalik))

- Update Cluster Autoscaler to 1.18.0; changelog: https://github.com/kubernetes/autoscaler/releases/tag/cluster-autoscaler-1.18.0 ([#89095](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/89095), [@losipiuk](https://github.com/losipiuk)) [SIG Autoscaling and Cluster Lifecycle]

  
  - `cronjob-controller`
  - `endpoint-controller`
  - `endpointslice-controller`
  - `endpointslicemirroring-controller`
  - `horizontal-pod-autoscaler`
  - `node-controller`
  - `pod-garbage-collector`
  - `storage-version-migrator-controller` ([#130405](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/130405), [@kariya-mitsuru](https://github.com/kariya-mitsuru)) [SIG Auth]

- Restartable init containers resource in pod autoscaler are now calculated. ([#120001](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/120001), [@qingwave](https://github.com/qingwave))

  
  - `cronjob-controller`
  - `endpoint-controller`
  - `endpointslice-controller`
  - `endpointslicemirroring-controller`
  - `horizontal-pod-autoscaler`
  - `node-controller`
  - `pod-garbage-collector`
  - `storage-version-migrator-controller` ([#130461](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/130461), [@kariya-mitsuru](https://github.com/kariya-mitsuru)) [SIG Auth]

- Updated `Cluster Autosaler` to version 1.26.1. ([#116526](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/116526), [@pacoxu](https://github.com/pacoxu)) [SIG Autoscaling and Cloud Provider]