title: Asynchronous task from Java servlet
body: <p>I need to perform an asynchronous task when a RESTful web service endpoint is called. Effectively, the endpoint is asked to perform a body of work with a POST operation. It should immediately return a 200 OK to the caller, spawn a thread and perform it's resource intensive task. On completion, the thread would then POST to a corresponding endpoint on the caller (another REST server) indicating success (passing a token that represents the initial transaction request).</p>
  
  <p>What are the best practice approaches for performing asynchronous actions inside a servlet that I should be aware of?</p>