The error message appearing in Apache logs indicates a fundamental path resolution issue. When Apache receives a request for wp-cron.php, it's looking in /var/www/html/ while your actual WordPress files reside in /var/www/httpdocs/. This mismatch between the DocumentRoot directive and actual file structure creates unnecessary 404 errors.

In a standard Apache setup for WordPress multisite, you'll typically find these configurations:

# In httpd.conf or sites-available/your-site.conf
DocumentRoot "/var/www/html"
<Directory "/var/www/html">
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
</Directory>

Meanwhile, your WordPress files are actually located at:

/var/www/httpdocs/
├── wp-admin/
├── wp-content/
├── wp-includes/
├── wp-cron.php
└── wp-config.php

Three approaches can resolve this permanently:

1. Correcting DocumentRoot

DocumentRoot "/var/www/httpdocs"
<Directory "/var/www/httpdocs">
    # Rest of configuration remains same

2. Using Alias Directive

If you need to maintain the original DocumentRoot for other purposes:

Alias /wp-cron.php "/var/www/httpdocs/wp-cron.php"
<Directory "/var/www/httpdocs">
    Options None
    AllowOverride None
    Require all granted
</Directory>

3. VirtualHost Configuration (Recommended for Multi-site)

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot "/var/www/httpdocs"
    # Additional directives...
</VirtualHost>

For WordPress multisite environments, consider these best practices:

• Use separate VirtualHost blocks for each domain
• Maintain consistent directory naming conventions
• Verify host file entries match your VirtualHost configurations
• Use complete paths in WordPress configuration (WP_HOME, WP_SITEURL)

To verify your Apache configuration:

apachectl -t         # Test configuration syntax
apachectl -S         # Show parsed settings

Remember to restart Apache after configuration changes:

systemctl restart apache2   # For systemd systems
service apache2 restart     # For older init systems

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When running multiple WordPress sites on a VPS, you might encounter Apache errors like:

[error] [client 127.0.0.1] script '/var/www/html/wp-cron.php' not found or unable to stat

This typically occurs when there's a discrepancy between the DocumentRoot defined in httpd.conf and the actual WordPress installation directory structure.

The key problems in this scenario are:

• Apache's DocumentRoot is set to /var/www/html
• WordPress files are actually located in /var/www/httpdocs
• No physical html directory exists
• wp-cron.php exists in httpdocs but Apache looks for it in html

Here are three approaches to resolve this:

1. Correcting DocumentRoot in Virtual Host

Update your virtual host configuration:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/httpdocs
    <Directory /var/www/httpdocs>
        Options FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

2. Creating a Symlink (Quick Fix)

For a temporary solution until proper configuration is in place:

ln -s /var/www/httpdocs /var/www/html

3. Proper Hosts File Configuration

Ensure proper entries in /etc/hosts for each domain:

127.0.0.1 yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com
127.0.0.1 anotherdomain.com www.anotherdomain.com

To optimize WordPress cron handling:

# In wp-config.php
define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true);

Then set up a proper system cron job:

# In crontab -e
*/15 * * * * wget -q -O - http://yourdomain.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron >/dev/null 2>&1

After making changes:

1. Restart Apache: systemctl restart apache2
2. Check error logs: tail -f /var/log/apache2/error.log
3. Test wp-cron access directly: curl -I http://yourdomain.com/wp-cron.php

These changes should eliminate the error messages while maintaining proper WordPress functionality.