chore(trait): Add an option to disable SSA in deployer trait

docs/modules/traits/pages/deployer.adoc

@@ -32,6 +32,11 @@ The following configuration options are available:
 | string
 | Allows to explicitly select the desired deployment kind between `deployment`, `cron-job` or `knative-service` when creating the resources for running the integration.
 
+| deployer.use-ssa
+| bool
+| Use server-side apply to update the owned resources (default `true`).
+Note that it automatically falls back to client-side patching, if SSA is not available, e.g., on old Kubernetes clusters.
+
 |===
 
 // End of autogenerated code - DO NOT EDIT! (configuration)

pkg/trait/deployer.go

@@ -41,6 +41,9 @@ type deployerTrait struct {
 	BaseTrait `property:",squash"`
 	// Allows to explicitly select the desired deployment kind between `deployment`, `cron-job` or `knative-service` when creating the resources for running the integration.
 	Kind string `property:"kind" json:"kind,omitempty"`
+	// Use server-side apply to update the owned resources (default `true`).
+	// Note that it automatically falls back to client-side patching, if SSA is not available, e.g., on old Kubernetes clusters.
+	UseSSA *bool `property:"use-ssa" json:"useSSA,omitempty"`
 }
 
 var _ ControllerStrategySelector = &deployerTrait{}
@@ -68,7 +71,7 @@ func (t *deployerTrait) Apply(e *Environment) error {
 			// check its list of accepted MIME types.
 			// As a simpler solution, we fall back to client-side apply at the first
 			// 415 error, and assume server-side apply is not available globally.
-			if hasServerSideApply {
+			if hasServerSideApply && IsNilOrTrue(t.UseSSA) {
 				err := t.serverSideApply(env, resource)
 				switch {
 				case err == nil:

resources/traits.yaml

@@ -281,6 +281,11 @@ traits:
     description: Allows to explicitly select the desired deployment kind between `deployment`,
       `cron-job` or `knative-service` when creating the resources for running the
       integration.
+  - name: use-ssa
+    type: bool
+    description: Use server-side apply to update the owned resources (default `true`).Note
+      that it automatically falls back to client-side patching, if SSA is not available,
+      e.g., on old Kubernetes clusters.
 - name: deployment
   platform: true
   profiles: