mysqldump from remote host

First you need to set the appropriate privileges on the target SQL server.

In this instance I want to use mysqldump to backup a database using a nightly script.

For this example assume the following;

mysql server host:   myserver.example.org
target database:     mydb
Backup host:         backup.example.org
Backup username:     backup

On the mysql server log in as root with;

mysql -u root -p

Enter this on the mysql console;

GRANT SELECT,LOCK TABLES ON mydb.* TO backup@backup.example.org
flush privileges;

On the backup server run this command;

mysqldump --host=myserver -u backup mydb > test.sql

Assuming that works, you can put the final command into your backup shell script or simply place it in your crontab.