diff --git a/nixos/tests/nomad.nix b/nixos/tests/nomad.nix
index bd052152bd65..51b11a8fef90 100644
--- a/nixos/tests/nomad.nix
+++ b/nixos/tests/nomad.nix
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ import ./make-test-python.nix (
   { lib, ... }: {
     name = "nomad";
     nodes = {
-      server = { pkgs, lib, ... }: {
+      default_server = { pkgs, lib, ... }: {
         networking = {
           interfaces.eth1.ipv4.addresses = lib.mkOverride 0 [{
             address = "192.168.1.1";
@@ -30,24 +30,68 @@ import ./make-test-python.nix (
           enableDocker = false;
         };
       };
+
+      custom_state_dir_server = { pkgs, lib, ... }: {
+        networking = {
+          interfaces.eth1.ipv4.addresses = lib.mkOverride 0 [{
+            address = "192.168.1.1";
+            prefixLength = 16;
+          }];
+        };
+
+        environment.etc."nomad.custom.json".source =
+          (pkgs.formats.json { }).generate "nomad.custom.json" {
+            region = "universe";
+            datacenter = "earth";
+          };
+
+        services.nomad = {
+          enable = true;
+          dropPrivileges = false;
+
+          settings = {
+            data_dir = "/nomad/data/dir";
+            server = {
+              enabled = true;
+              bootstrap_expect = 1;
+            };
+          };
+
+          extraSettingsPaths = [ "/etc/nomad.custom.json" ];
+          enableDocker = false;
+        };
+
+        systemd.services.nomad.serviceConfig.ExecStartPre = "${pkgs.writeShellScript "mk_data_dir" ''
+          set -euxo pipefail
+
+          ${pkgs.coreutils}/bin/mkdir -p /nomad/data/dir
+        ''}";
+      };
     };
 
     testScript = ''
-      server.wait_for_unit("nomad.service")
+      def test_nomad_server(server):
+          server.wait_for_unit("nomad.service")
 
-      # wait for healthy server
-      server.wait_until_succeeds(
-          "[ $(nomad operator raft list-peers | grep true | wc -l) == 1 ]"
-      )
+          # wait for healthy server
+          server.wait_until_succeeds(
+              "[ $(nomad operator raft list-peers | grep true | wc -l) == 1 ]"
+          )
 
-      # wait for server liveness
-      server.succeed("[ $(nomad server members | grep -o alive | wc -l) == 1 ]")
+          # wait for server liveness
+          server.succeed("[ $(nomad server members | grep -o alive | wc -l) == 1 ]")
 
-      # check the region
-      server.succeed("nomad server members | grep -o universe")
+          # check the region
+          server.succeed("nomad server members | grep -o universe")
 
-      # check the datacenter
-      server.succeed("[ $(nomad server members | grep -o earth | wc -l) == 1 ]")
+          # check the datacenter
+          server.succeed("[ $(nomad server members | grep -o earth | wc -l) == 1 ]")
+
+
+      servers = [default_server, custom_state_dir_server]
+
+      for server in servers:
+          test_nomad_server(server)
     '';
   }
 )