Azure v16.1.0 release with the latest Flatcar.

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release looking good but currently blocked by issues on azure side

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All tests green. Will deploy a cluster in gollum to ensure there are no issues with monitoring. If all goes well I'll release on monday

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Test cluster running on gollum. Let's see how it behaves

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ℹ️ Team phoenix is drafting Azure 16.1.0 Release, mainly to provide fix for CVEs. Target release date: Release PR: https://github.com/giantswarm/roadmap/issues/619

Pre-Release

• [x] Create release ticket on Releases board. If you are using this template, just select the Workload Cluster Releases Github project on the right sidebar.
• [x] Make an announcement on the appropriate product Slack channel (#product-kaas, #product-managedapps or #product-empowerment) that team is doing a release. Include a link to this issue.
• [x] Make sure release was tested by creating new cluster, upgrading from older version and with HelloWorld app.
• [x] Aggregate release notes from all changed components and add to README.md in the release directory.
• [x] Send draft release announcement to the appropriate product Slack channel (#product-kaas, #product-managedapps or #product-empowerment) for review ASAP. You can use opsctl like explained here.
• [x] Verify documentation is up to date.

Releasing

• [x] Create release PR Instructions
  • [x] Define new release in release.yaml file.
  • [x] Activate new release by setting state to active.
  • [x] Make sure that the release.yaml has an up-to-date date specified on the date field.
  • [x] Deactivate old release if it's within same major version (state: deprecated). Verify with PO if you have doubts.
  • [x] Check versions of all components included. They shouldn't be lower than those in the previous release unless there was a rollback.

Example PR

• [x] Release relevant operators.
  • [x] Tag release branch.
  • [x] Bump operator version in draft release.
• [x] Make sure that WIP releases in releases repo branch are removed and not merged to master since the master branch is deployed automatically after merging PR and that would make WIP releases visible in customers’ installations which should generally not happen.

At this point the Release will be available for all customers on all installations, but we haven't notified them yet.

Post-Release

• [x] Update front-end cluster with the new release.
• [x] Verify release is available on all installations. You can use this script.
• [x] Send out release announcement to all customers according to these instructions.
• [x] PO subscribes to release posts on Slack to get notifications if there are follow-up messages.
• [x] Close release task on Releases board.