diff --git a/nixos/modules/services/databases/victoriametrics.nix b/nixos/modules/services/databases/victoriametrics.nix
index 075e6a68fc3f..ba7464ade56c 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/services/databases/victoriametrics.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/services/databases/victoriametrics.nix
@@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ in
       serviceConfig = {
         ExecStart = lib.escapeShellArgs (
           startCLIList
-          ++ lib.optionals (cfg.prometheusConfig != null) [ "-promscrape.config=${prometheusConfigYml}" ]
+          ++ lib.optionals (cfg.prometheusConfig != {}) [ "-promscrape.config=${prometheusConfigYml}" ]
         );
 
         DynamicUser = true;
diff --git a/nixos/modules/services/monitoring/vmagent.nix b/nixos/modules/services/monitoring/vmagent.nix
index af6cdf3fbf54..42585942e2d4 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/services/monitoring/vmagent.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/services/monitoring/vmagent.nix
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ in {
         CacheDirectory = "vmagent";
         ExecStart = lib.escapeShellArgs (
           startCLIList
-          ++ lib.optionals (cfg.prometheusConfig != null) ["-promscrape.config=${prometheusConfigYml}"]
+          ++ lib.optionals (cfg.prometheusConfig != {}) ["-promscrape.config=${prometheusConfigYml}"]
         );
         LoadCredential = lib.optional (cfg.remoteWrite.basicAuthPasswordFile != null) [
           "remote_write_basic_auth_password:${cfg.remoteWrite.basicAuthPasswordFile}"
diff --git a/nixos/tests/victoriametrics/default.nix b/nixos/tests/victoriametrics/default.nix
index a86d9ee60a9e..8f7a4d15b663 100644
--- a/nixos/tests/victoriametrics/default.nix
+++ b/nixos/tests/victoriametrics/default.nix
@@ -7,4 +7,5 @@
 {
   remote-write = import ./remote-write.nix { inherit system pkgs; };
   vmalert = import ./vmalert.nix { inherit system pkgs; };
+  external-promscrape-config = import ./external-promscrape-config.nix { inherit system pkgs; };
 }
diff --git a/nixos/tests/victoriametrics/external-promscrape-config.nix b/nixos/tests/victoriametrics/external-promscrape-config.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..3173223b79bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nixos/tests/victoriametrics/external-promscrape-config.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+import ../make-test-python.nix (
+  {
+    lib,
+    pkgs,
+    ...
+  }:
+  let
+    nodeExporterPort = 9100;
+    promscrapeConfig = {
+      global = {
+        scrape_interval = "2s";
+      };
+      scrape_configs = [
+        {
+          job_name = "node";
+          static_configs = [
+            {
+              targets = [
+                "node:${toString nodeExporterPort}"
+              ];
+            }
+          ];
+        }
+      ];
+    };
+    settingsFormat = pkgs.formats.yaml { };
+    promscrapeConfigYaml = settingsFormat.generate "prometheusConfig.yaml" promscrapeConfig;
+  in
+  {
+    name = "victoriametrics-external-promscrape-config";
+    meta = with pkgs.lib.maintainers; {
+      maintainers = [
+        ryan4yin
+      ];
+    };
+
+    nodes = {
+      victoriametrics =
+        {
+          config,
+          pkgs,
+          ...
+        }:
+        {
+          environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.jq ];
+          networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [ 8428 ];
+          services.victoriametrics = {
+            enable = true;
+            extraOptions = [
+              "-promscrape.config=${toString promscrapeConfigYaml}"
+            ];
+          };
+        };
+
+      node =
+        { ... }:
+        {
+          services.prometheus.exporters.node = {
+            enable = true;
+            openFirewall = true;
+          };
+        };
+    };
+
+    testScript = ''
+      node.wait_for_unit("prometheus-node-exporter")
+      node.wait_for_open_port(${toString nodeExporterPort})
+
+      victoriametrics.wait_for_unit("victoriametrics")
+      victoriametrics.wait_for_open_port(8428)
+
+
+      promscrape_config = victoriametrics.succeed("journalctl -u victoriametrics -o cat | grep 'promscrape.config'")
+      assert '${toString promscrapeConfigYaml}' in promscrape_config
+
+      victoriametrics.wait_until_succeeds(
+        "curl -sf 'http://localhost:8428/api/v1/query?query=node_exporter_build_info\{instance=\"node:9100\"\}' | "
+        + "jq '.data.result[0].value[1]' | grep '\"1\"'"
+      )
+    '';
+  }
+)