- kubeadm: Use generic terminology in logs instead of direct mentions of YAML/JSON  ([#130345](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/130345), [@HirazawaUi](https://github.com/HirazawaUi))
- kubeadm: removed preflight check for `ip`, `iptables`, `ethtool` and `tc` on Linux nodes. 

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

Mono","Courier New",monospace}*,::after,::before{box-sizing:border-box}html{font-family:sans-serif;line-height:1.15;-webkit-text-size-adjust:100%;-webkit-tap-highlight-color:transparent}article,aside,figcaption,figure,footer,header,hgroup,main,nav,section{display:block}body{margin:0;font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,"Helvetica Neue",Arial,"Noto Sans","Liberation Sans",sans-serif,"Apple Color Emoji","Segoe UI Emoji","Segoe UI Symbol","Noto Color Emoji";font-size:1rem;fo...

- Client-go: Optimized leaders renewing leases by updating leader lock optimistically without getting the record from the API server first. Also, a new metric `leader_election_slowpath_total` was added to allow users to monitor how many leader elections are updated non-optimistically.
   ([#122069](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/122069), [@linxiulei](https://github.com/linxiulei))
- Locked the GA feature-gate `ConsistentHTTPGetHandlers` to default.

- Added support for RSA and ECDSA format keys in preflight check on `kubeadm`. ([#112508](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/112508), [@SataQiu](https://github.com/SataQiu))
- Allowed `Label` section in vSphere e2e cloud provider configuration. ([#112427](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/112427), [@gnufied](https://github.com/gnufied))

- Reduce critical section in watchcache to fix kube-apiserver scalability under heavy load of list requests ([#122027](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/122027), [@wojtek-t](https://github.com/wojtek-t)) [SIG API Machinery]

## Dependencies

efd;display:flex;flex-direction:column;padding-left:0;margin-bottom:0;border-radius:var(--bs-list-group-border-radius)}.list-group-numbered{list-style-type:none;counter-reset:section}.list-group-numbered>.list-group-item::before{content:counters(section, ".") ". ";counter-increment:section}.list-group-item-action{width:100%;color:var(--bs-list-group-action-color);text-align:inherit}.list-group-item-action:focus,.list-group-item-action:hover{z-index:1;color:var(--bs-list-group-action-hover-color)...

## Changelog since v1.25.1

## Changes by Kind

### Bug or Regression

- Allow Label section in vsphere e2e cloudprovider configuration ([#112478](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/112478), [@gnufied](https://github.com/gnufied)) [SIG Storage and Testing]

### API Change

- #### Additional documentation e.g., KEPs (Kubernetes Enhancement Proposals), usage docs, etc.:
  
  <!--
  This section can be blank if this pull request does not require a release note.
  
  When adding links which point to resources within git repositories, like
  KEPs or supporting documentation, please reference a specific commit and avoid

Shim for \"new\" HTML5 structural elements to display correctly (IE10, older browsers)\n// TODO: remove in v5\n// stylelint-disable-next-line selector-list-comma-newline-after\narticle, aside, figcaption, figure, footer, header, hgroup, main, nav, section {\n  display: block;\n}\n\n// Body\n//\n// 1. Remove the margin in all browsers.\n// 2. As a best practice, apply a default `background-color`.\n// 3. Set an explicit initial text-align value so that we can later use\n//    the `inherit` value on...