diff --git a/nixos/modules/services/databases/clickhouse.nix b/nixos/modules/services/databases/clickhouse.nix
index 1b8771cec391..21e0cee34151 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/services/databases/clickhouse.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/services/databases/clickhouse.nix
@@ -70,6 +70,11 @@ with lib;
       };
     };
 
+    environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.clickhouse ];
+
+    # startup requires a `/etc/localtime` which only if exists if `time.timeZone != null`
+    time.timeZone = mkDefault "UTC";
+
   };
 
 }
diff --git a/nixos/tests/all-tests.nix b/nixos/tests/all-tests.nix
index ca5015ded3e8..1e8e2213fac0 100644
--- a/nixos/tests/all-tests.nix
+++ b/nixos/tests/all-tests.nix
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ in
   cfssl = handleTestOn ["x86_64-linux"] ./cfssl.nix {};
   chromium = (handleTestOn ["x86_64-linux"] ./chromium.nix {}).stable or {};
   cjdns = handleTest ./cjdns.nix {};
+  clickhouse = handleTest ./clickhouse.nix {};
   cloud-init = handleTest ./cloud-init.nix {};
   codimd = handleTest ./codimd.nix {};
   containers-bridge = handleTest ./containers-bridge.nix {};
diff --git a/nixos/tests/clickhouse.nix b/nixos/tests/clickhouse.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..7d835069ec4d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nixos/tests/clickhouse.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+import ./make-test.nix ({ pkgs, ... }: {
+  name = "clickhouse";
+  meta.maintainers = with pkgs.stdenv.lib.maintainers; [ ma27 ];
+
+  machine = {
+    services.clickhouse.enable = true;
+  };
+
+  testScript =
+    let
+      # work around quote/substitution complexity by Nix, Perl, bash and SQL.
+      tableDDL = pkgs.writeText "ddl.sql" "CREATE TABLE `demo` (`value` FixedString(10)) engine = MergeTree PARTITION BY value ORDER BY tuple();";
+      insertQuery = pkgs.writeText "insert.sql" "INSERT INTO `demo` (`value`) VALUES ('foo');";
+      selectQuery = pkgs.writeText "select.sql" "SELECT * from `demo`";
+    in
+      ''
+        $machine->start();
+        $machine->waitForUnit("clickhouse.service");
+        $machine->waitForOpenPort(9000);
+
+        $machine->succeed("cat ${tableDDL} | clickhouse-client");
+        $machine->succeed("cat ${insertQuery} | clickhouse-client");
+        $machine->succeed("cat ${selectQuery} | clickhouse-client | grep foo");
+      '';
+})
diff --git a/pkgs/servers/clickhouse/default.nix b/pkgs/servers/clickhouse/default.nix
index b53c6388d18d..bddffc52fd77 100644
--- a/pkgs/servers/clickhouse/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/servers/clickhouse/default.nix
@@ -36,6 +36,11 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   postInstall = ''
     rm -rf $out/share/clickhouse-test
+
+    sed -i -e '\!<log>/var/log/clickhouse-server/clickhouse-server\.log</log>!d' \
+      $out/etc/clickhouse-server/config.xml
+    substituteInPlace $out/etc/clickhouse-server/config.xml \
+      --replace "<errorlog>/var/log/clickhouse-server/clickhouse-server.err.log</errorlog>" "<console>1</console>"
   '';
 
   meta = with stdenv.lib; {