Merge pull request #126983 from dashpole/fix_mem_leak_31

Cherrypick of #126957 on 1.31: Fix memory leak from global OpenTelemetry MeterProvider

cmd/kubelet/app/server.go

@@ -37,6 +37,8 @@ import (
 	"github.com/coreos/go-systemd/v22/daemon"
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
 	"github.com/spf13/pflag"
+	"go.opentelemetry.io/otel"
+	"go.opentelemetry.io/otel/metric/noop"
 	"google.golang.org/grpc/codes"
 	"google.golang.org/grpc/status"
 	jsonpatch "gopkg.in/evanphx/json-patch.v4"
@@ -121,6 +123,9 @@ import (
 
 func init() {
 	utilruntime.Must(logsapi.AddFeatureGates(utilfeature.DefaultMutableFeatureGate))
+	// Prevent memory leak from OTel metrics, which we don't use:
+	// https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib/issues/5190
+	otel.SetMeterProvider(noop.NewMeterProvider())
 }
 
 const (