diff --git a/nixos/modules/misc/ids.nix b/nixos/modules/misc/ids.nix
index 2cbbbc522e1d..858c7ee53dbb 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/misc/ids.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/misc/ids.nix
@@ -229,7 +229,7 @@ in
       grafana = 196;
       skydns = 197;
       # ripple-rest = 198; # unused, removed 2017-08-12
-      nix-serve = 199;
+      # nix-serve = 199; # unused, removed 2020-12-12
       tvheadend = 200;
       uwsgi = 201;
       gitit = 202;
diff --git a/nixos/modules/services/networking/nix-serve.nix b/nixos/modules/services/networking/nix-serve.nix
index b17f35c769bb..7fc145f2303d 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/services/networking/nix-serve.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/services/networking/nix-serve.nix
@@ -69,13 +69,9 @@ in
         ExecStart = "${pkgs.nix-serve}/bin/nix-serve " +
           "--listen ${cfg.bindAddress}:${toString cfg.port} ${cfg.extraParams}";
         User = "nix-serve";
-        Group = "nogroup";
+        Group = "nix-serve";
+        DynamicUser = true;
       };
     };
-
-    users.users.nix-serve = {
-      description = "Nix-serve user";
-      uid = config.ids.uids.nix-serve;
-    };
   };
 }
diff --git a/nixos/tests/all-tests.nix b/nixos/tests/all-tests.nix
index 76e5077f42d5..b018bd6c1317 100644
--- a/nixos/tests/all-tests.nix
+++ b/nixos/tests/all-tests.nix
@@ -295,6 +295,7 @@ in
   nginx-sandbox = handleTestOn ["x86_64-linux"] ./nginx-sandbox.nix {};
   nginx-sso = handleTest ./nginx-sso.nix {};
   nginx-variants = handleTest ./nginx-variants.nix {};
+  nix-serve = handleTest ./nix-ssh-serve.nix {};
   nix-ssh-serve = handleTest ./nix-ssh-serve.nix {};
   nixos-generate-config = handleTest ./nixos-generate-config.nix {};
   nomad = handleTest ./nomad.nix {};
diff --git a/nixos/tests/nix-serve.nix b/nixos/tests/nix-serve.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..ab82f4be43e6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nixos/tests/nix-serve.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+import ./make-test-python.nix ({ pkgs, ... }:
+{
+  name = "nix-serve";
+  machine = { pkgs, ... }: {
+    services.nix-serve.enable = true;
+    environment.systemPackages = [
+      pkgs.hello
+    ];
+  };
+  testScript = let
+    pkgHash = builtins.head (
+      builtins.match "${builtins.storeDir}/([^-]+).+" (toString pkgs.hello)
+    );
+  in ''
+    start_all()
+    machine.wait_for_unit("nix-serve.service")
+    machine.wait_for_open_port(5000)
+    machine.succeed(
+        "curl --fail -g http://0.0.0.0:5000/nar/${pkgHash}.nar -o /tmp/hello.nar"
+    )
+  '';
+})
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/package-management/nix-serve/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/package-management/nix-serve/default.nix
index f85adee4917f..a1edfdd1367f 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/package-management/nix-serve/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/package-management/nix-serve/default.nix
@@ -1,5 +1,11 @@
-{ lib, stdenv, fetchFromGitHub,
-  bzip2, nix, perl, makeWrapper,
+{ lib
+, stdenv
+, fetchFromGitHub
+, bzip2
+, nix
+, perl
+, makeWrapper
+, nixosTests
 }:
 
 with lib;
@@ -30,6 +36,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
                 --add-flags $out/libexec/nix-serve/nix-serve.psgi
   '';
 
+  passthru.tests.nix-serve = nixosTests.nix-serve;
+
   meta = {
     homepage = "https://github.com/edolstra/nix-serve";
     description = "A utility for sharing a Nix store as a binary cache";