Google Distributed Cloud (software only) for VMware 1.33.700-gke.71 is now available

## Announcement Announcement Google Distributed Cloud (software only) for VMware 1.33.700-gke.71 is now available for download. To upgrade, see [Upgrade clusters](https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/distributed-cloud/vmware/docs/how-to/upgrading). Google Distributed Cloud 1.33.700-gke.71 runs on Kubernetes v1.33.5-gke.2200. If you are using a third-party storage vendor, check the Google Distributed Cloud-ready storage partners document to make sure the storage vendor has already passed the qualification for this release. After a release, it takes approximately 7 to 14 days for the version to become available for use with GKE On-Prem API clients: the Google Cloud console, the gcloud CLI, and Terraform. ## Fix Fixed The following issues were fixed in 1.33.700-gke.71: * Fixed vulnerabilities listed in [Vulnerability fixes](https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/distributed-cloud/vmware/docs/version-history). * Resolved an issue that caused VMware cluster upgrades from non-advanced clusters to advanced clusters to get stuck. The system attempted to update immutable fields in the Hub membership. With this fix, the cluster operator preserves the original membership fields during the upgrade process instead of attempting to overwrite them so that the migration to an advanced cluster completes successfully. * Fixed an issue in advanced user clusters where the `cloud.google.com/gke-nodepool` label for workload node pools unexpectedly included an `-np`suffix. This caused pods using `nodeSelector` targeting the original pool name (such as Apigee workloads) to fail to schedule. For clusters on older versions experiencing this issue, you can manually set the expected label in the node pool configuration. * Fixed an issue where setting the deprecated `stackdriver.enableVPC` field to`true` in a cluster configuration file would block upgrades to an Advanced Cluster. The `stackdriver.enableVPC` field has been deprecated and its setting is now ignored during the upgrade validation process. For clusters on older versions experiencing this issue, remove the field or set it to `false` in your configuration file before you upgrade. * Fixed an issue where the `node-problem-detector` was incorrectly deployed onto non-Advanced VMware clusters. This caused the `containerd` runtime to continuously restart on affected nodes due to incompatible health check configurations, leading to ETCD/CRI failures (such as errors connecting to`/run/containerd/containerd.sock`) and unsuccessful cluster upgrades. ## Feature Feature The following feature was added in 1.33.700-gke.71: * Improved the resilience of migration from regular clusters to advanced clusters. If a migration attempt fails or is interrupted, you can now safely retry the process without manual cleanup. The system automatically reuses existing resources and the temporary bootstrap cluster when you retry.**Important:** If a migration fails, do not delete the bootstrap cluster, because deleting the bootstrap cluster can cause data loss and prevent recovery.