diff --git a/test_runner/fixtures/neon_fixtures.py b/test_runner/fixtures/neon_fixtures.py
index 6446eb6bc5..a232bf8b6d 100644
--- a/test_runner/fixtures/neon_fixtures.py
+++ b/test_runner/fixtures/neon_fixtures.py
@@ -1228,6 +1228,20 @@ class PageserverHttpClient(requests.Session):
         )
         self.verbose_error(res)
 
+    def patch_tenant_config_client_side(
+        self,
+        tenant_id: TenantId,
+        inserts: Optional[Dict[str, Any]] = None,
+        removes: Optional[List[str]] = None,
+    ):
+        current = self.tenant_config(tenant_id).tenant_specific_overrides
+        if inserts is not None:
+            current.update(inserts)
+        if removes is not None:
+            for key in removes:
+                del current[key]
+        self.set_tenant_config(tenant_id, current)
+
     def tenant_size(self, tenant_id: TenantId) -> int:
         return self.tenant_size_and_modelinputs(tenant_id)[0]
 
diff --git a/test_runner/regress/test_disk_usage_eviction.py b/test_runner/regress/test_disk_usage_eviction.py
index 90f14004ee..bd13b401e2 100644
--- a/test_runner/regress/test_disk_usage_eviction.py
+++ b/test_runner/regress/test_disk_usage_eviction.py
@@ -295,8 +295,12 @@ def test_pageserver_respects_overridden_resident_size(eviction_env: EvictionEnv)
         [du > min_resident_size for du in du_by_timeline.values()]
     ), "ensure the larger tenant will get a haircut"
 
-    ps_http.set_tenant_config(small_tenant[0], {"min_resident_size_override": min_resident_size})
-    ps_http.set_tenant_config(large_tenant[0], {"min_resident_size_override": min_resident_size})
+    ps_http.patch_tenant_config_client_side(
+        small_tenant[0], {"min_resident_size_override": min_resident_size}
+    )
+    ps_http.patch_tenant_config_client_side(
+        large_tenant[0], {"min_resident_size_override": min_resident_size}
+    )
 
     # Make the large tenant more-recently used. An incorrect implemention would try to evict
     # from the smaller tenant first, since its layers would be the least-recently-used.