And for the record the reason why you would be having trouble hosting Win VMs under OVZ is that it doesn't support anything other than Linux guests!
This is because technically OVZ is not true virtualisation, it is merely a container rather than a true virtual machine (with virtual hardware). It may not make a lot of sense (if you don't have the Linux background) but OpenVZ is basically an enhanced chroot jail so rather than being completely separate to the host OS, it is actually just a part of the host. That is also why it is so resource friendly, many OVZ container OS processes can just piggy back off the host, rather than running their own separately. I haven't tested extensively with v11.x appliances, but I had an old v2009.x LAMP appliance serving a basic site with very low load that seemed quite incredible really. Off the top of my head the comparrison went something like (although maybe I'm making some of this up...!)
OpenVZ container
CPU (idle): 0%
CPU (peak): 12%
RAM usage (after reboot): 30-40MB
RAM usage (after running for a few days): ~80-90MB
KVM VM
CPU (idle): 4-6%
CPU (peak): 80-90%
RAM usage (after reboot): 80-90MB
RAM usage (after running for a few days): ~150-200MB
Hopefully this explains it all a little.
As for Linux/TKL newb resources, I have had a pretty steep learning curve over the last couple of years myself (was pretty much in the same boat as you). In my experience Google would have to be one of the best Linux resources and IMO it is so much easier to find useful Linux info (as opposed to Win info). I still often find myself having to google the occasional command to get the correct switches and/or syntax. Other good resources for working on TKL appliances are the Ubuntu Server guide (invaluable online Wiki type thing). The Ubuntu forums are also pretty handy, as are my beloved TKL forums :)
And yes converting existing Linux servers to OVZ can be tricky (although not impossible - unlike Win servers). From memory there should be some info and links on the PVE wiki and/or the OVZ wiki and/or the forum post Adrian linked to above.
If you really need Win VMs on your older server (that doesn't support KVM) then you may need to consider something else, like a headless VirtualBox server - use the search box (top right corner) as Rik has posted a TKL patch somewhere on here. Performance will probably be a little averae, but might get you out of a spot.
Glad to be of assistance :)
And for the record the reason why you would be having trouble hosting Win VMs under OVZ is that it doesn't support anything other than Linux guests!
This is because technically OVZ is not true virtualisation, it is merely a container rather than a true virtual machine (with virtual hardware). It may not make a lot of sense (if you don't have the Linux background) but OpenVZ is basically an enhanced chroot jail so rather than being completely separate to the host OS, it is actually just a part of the host. That is also why it is so resource friendly, many OVZ container OS processes can just piggy back off the host, rather than running their own separately. I haven't tested extensively with v11.x appliances, but I had an old v2009.x LAMP appliance serving a basic site with very low load that seemed quite incredible really. Off the top of my head the comparrison went something like (although maybe I'm making some of this up...!)
OpenVZ container
KVM VM
Hopefully this explains it all a little.
As for Linux/TKL newb resources, I have had a pretty steep learning curve over the last couple of years myself (was pretty much in the same boat as you). In my experience Google would have to be one of the best Linux resources and IMO it is so much easier to find useful Linux info (as opposed to Win info). I still often find myself having to google the occasional command to get the correct switches and/or syntax. Other good resources for working on TKL appliances are the Ubuntu Server guide (invaluable online Wiki type thing). The Ubuntu forums are also pretty handy, as are my beloved TKL forums :)
And yes converting existing Linux servers to OVZ can be tricky (although not impossible - unlike Win servers). From memory there should be some info and links on the PVE wiki and/or the OVZ wiki and/or the forum post Adrian linked to above.
If you really need Win VMs on your older server (that doesn't support KVM) then you may need to consider something else, like a headless VirtualBox server - use the search box (top right corner) as Rik has posted a TKL patch somewhere on here. Performance will probably be a little averae, but might get you out of a spot.