- HTTP/2 connection health check is enabled by default in all Kubernetes clients to fix persistently broken connections (https://github.com/kubernetes/client-go/issues/374). If needed, users can tune the feature via the HTTP2_READ_IDLE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS and HTTP2_PING_TIMEOUT_SECONDS environment variables. The feature is disabled if HTTP2_READ_IDLE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS is set to 0. ([#100376](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/100376),...

- Promoted `StatefulSetStartOrdinal` to stable. This means `--feature-gates=StatefulSetStartOrdinal=true` are not needed on kube-apiserver and kube-controller-manager binaries and they'll be removed soon following policy at https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/using-api/deprecation-policy/#deprecation. ([#125374](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/125374),...

- When invoked with `-list-images`, the `e2e.test` binary now also lists the images that might be needed for storage tests. ([#108458](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/108458), [@pohly](https://github.com/pohly))

* Fixes ability for admin/edit/view users to see controller revisions, needed for kubectl rollout commands ([#70699](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/70699), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt))

  property rights or otherwise. As a condition to exercising the
  rights and licenses granted hereunder, each Recipient hereby
  assumes sole responsibility to secure any other intellectual
  property rights needed, if any. For example, if a third party
  patent license is required to allow Recipient to Distribute the
  Program, it is Recipient's responsibility to acquire that license
  before distributing the Program.

* On AttachDetachController node status update, do not retry when node doesn't exist but keep the node entry in cache. ([#50806](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/50806), [@verult](https://github.com/verult))
* Prevent unneeded endpoint updates ([#50934](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/50934), [@joelsmith](https://github.com/joelsmith))

be full of soup.

  `There's certainly too much pepper in that soup!' Alice said to
herself, as well as she could for sneezing.

  There was certainly too much of it in the air.  Even the
Duchess sneezed occasionally; and as for the baby, it was
sneezing and howling alternately without a moment's pause.  The
only things in the kitchen that did not sneeze, were the cook,

## Changelog since v1.15.6

### Other notable changes

* Change GCP ILB firewall names to contain the "k8s-fw-" prefix like the rest of the firewall rules. This is needed for consistency and also for other components to identify the firewall rule as k8s/service-controller managed. ([#84622](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/84622), [@prameshj](https://github.com/prameshj))

  - Speed up binpacking by reducing the number of PreFilter calls (call once per pod instead of #pods*#nodes times)
  - Speed up finding unneeded nodes by 5x+ in very large clusters by reducing the number of PreFilter calls
  - Expose `--max-nodes-total` as a metric
  - Errors in `IncreaseSize` changed from type `apiError` to `cloudProviderError`

### **CLI**

*   Swagger 1.2 validation is removed for kubectl. The options `--use-openapi` and `--schema-cache-dir` are also removed because they are no longer needed. ([#53232](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/53232),[ @apelisse](https://github.com/apelisse))

### **Cluster Lifecycle**